Tuesday, 10 September 2019

 Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:09): My adjournment matter this evening is to the Minister for Health, and it relates to cemetery fees. I have received correspondence from a concerned member of the Victorian public who has had difficulty in relation to the fees he has been charged at a very stressful time after a death in his family. This issue is around the gazetted overpricing and double costing of fees at cemeteries across the state. In the correspondence that I have received from—

Mr Davis: Death tax.

Ms CROZIER: Well, let us hope we do not need to go there, Mr Davis; we do not need another tax. We have enough taxes being put onto the Victorian public by this government. Nevertheless, this is a serious matter because this is a very stressful time for people and having financial issues placed on them at this time doubles that terrible stress.

I am informed that there is a lack of oversight of cemetery trusts and that the current audit and crosscheck system of fees is inadequate. There is only one avenue for fee reduction or waiver, there is no ombudsman and Consumer Affairs Victoria are unable to be involved. This has come out through this investigation by the person that I am referring to.

There are clearly problems across the system that warrant an investigation into the sector to see how this double costing of fees is occurring. The action I seek is for the minister to provide clarification as to how cemetery trusts in Victoria manage and crosscheck increases in gazetted fees to ensure compliance with the relevant legislation that they need to adhere to actually occurs so that Victorian families are not being overcharged at a time of immense grief.