Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Remembrance Parks Central Victoria

Report 2021–22

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:21): I rise to speak on the Remembrance Parks Central Victoria (RPCV) annual report for 2021–22, which was tabled on 20 December 2022. What I want to highlight is another governance failure by the chair and board members of the Remembrance Park Central Victoria trust.

In 2017–18 the board held their annual meeting on 26 November 2018, which was in line with what is outlined in the legislation, which says a class A cemetery trust must hold its annual meeting before 30 December in each calendar year. It also complied in that the invite that was issued to that meeting gave adequate notice and a report of it was included in the annual report for 2018–19. There is still an invite on the website for that meeting. In 2018–19 the board held their annual meeting on 25 November 2019 in line with the requirements of the act. That invite can still be found on the Remembrance Parks Central Victoria website. The annual report for 2019–20 carried a report of the annual meeting as having been held on 25 November 2019.

Then you get to 2019–20, and two things happened in 2019–20. Of course we had COVID, but we also had a change of board chair at RPCV, and the meeting was not held by the end of the year, which was not in line with the act. Of course there may have been concessions given due to COVID. It was actually held on 24 February 2022. As I said, that was possibly an extension due to COVID. It was mentioned in the annual report for the following year that it was held online, so I am quite happy with that. But in 2020–21 there was no mention of any annual meeting ever being held – no mention anywhere. There is no notice or invite on the website, no mention of it in the 2021–22 annual report.

This year we see further governance failure with the annual meeting for 2021–22 only now being advertised that it will be held next week – six months beyond the time line for holding the annual meeting. It was advertised last Friday, on 16 June, to be held on 27 June. The RSVP for it – you have to register because it is going to be online – closes tomorrow, on 22 June. That is six days that people had to register. I do not feel that is adequate notice as is required under the act. It is less than two weeks notice; in fact it is less than a week’s notice. It should also have been advertised. Given that the meeting is held online, it should be advertised everywhere, but it should at least be advertised in the communities where this trust manages cemeteries. Other than Bendigo, they also manage cemeteries in Shepparton, Sunbury, Donnybrook and Heathcote.

To be fair to everyone involved in the cemeteries that are managed by the trust, it should have been advertised in their local paper. This is a further governance failure under the current chair. We have had the price review debacle, we have had the ornaments and monuments debacle that resulted in graves being desecrated and now we have a failure to hold an annual meeting within the legislated time frame – and we question whether last year’s happened at all. This year’s is six months late, there is inadequate notice and other communities have not even been notified of it at all.

The website for RPCV also has Shepparton spelled ‘Shepperton’. That is Shepperton in the UK, not Shepparton in Victoria – it is ‘arton’. This shows how much this board actually cares about the community of Shepparton. This board is incompetent and the chair is incompetent, and the minister should sack the board and the chair immediately. It is an insult to people who have loved ones interred at these cemeteries to have incompetent people and people who are not compassionate managing these cemeteries.