Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Remembrance Parks Central Victoria

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:12): (354) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Health. The action that I seek from the minister is for her to immediately remove the current board of the Remembrance Parks Central Victoria trust and replace it with a more compassionate and considerate board and ensure that any new board members also include representatives who live in Greater Shepparton to give Shepparton families of loved ones interred at either Pine Lodge or Kialla West cemeteries a voice. Poor management and cruel policies implemented by the RPCV board have had a devastating impact on my constituents who have laid their departed loved ones to rest in our RPCV-run cemeteries. My continued calls for the minister to replace the current RPCV board with a more compassionate board are a direct result of the disgraceful treatment of grieving families by the RPCV trust board under the leadership of chair Marg Lewis, a former Labor MP. With Mrs Lewis at the helm, RPCV has had a chequered past, with several failures of governance raising anger within impacted families and the public.

Firstly, in 2022 RPCV attempted to raise the cost of burials by approximately 300 per cent, and this exorbitant increase was only thwarted by a vigorous backlash from funeral directors and the community. Then without any warning or consultation with families RPCV desecrated graves by removing cherished family mementos and memorials. This action by the trust caused unimaginable pain to grieving families and caused the resignation of the then CEO.

RPCV’s annual general meetings have been held up to six months late, despite legislation requiring them to be held by 30 December each year. Worse still, no record can be found of the 2021 annual meeting even being held. I have concerns of possible financial mismanagement by RPCV, with contradictions contained in the 2021–22 annual report regarding $543,000 in cash received from Greater Shepparton City Council. The operating statement on page 25 of the report states this cash had been added to RPCV’s perpetual maintenance reserve. However, the balance sheet and changes in equity statement reveal that no money has been transferred in or out of the reserve since the 2019–20 financial year.

Only two weeks ago I was contacted by numerous families of loved ones who were laid to rest at Pine Lodge Cemetery conveying their devastation at RPCV’s decision to change the style of headstone design for new gravesites at the cemetery – again made without any consultation or notification to families in the Greater Shepparton community. It is time the RPCV board included representatives from Greater Shepparton, and I call on the minister to act immediately to make this happen.