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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-05-03 Daily Xml
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FUNERAL INDUSTRY

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (16:19): Last year I received an excellent report from parliamentary intern, Katherine Portelli, from Flinders University. I asked Ms Portelli to inquire into consumer rights in regard to the funeral industry. Over the past year, I have received a number of enquiries and complaints from Ashford constituents in this area, and also people outside of the electorate I might add, as well as other issues to do with end of life arrangements. In line with other legislation that I am pursuing, I asked Ms Portelli to look into this area.

One of the first things that she found was that there are a number of pieces of legislation that could be relevant to the industry: Fair Trading Act 1987, Benefit Associations Act 1958, Cremation Act 2000, Local Government Act 1934, Adelaide Cemeteries Authority Act 2001 and Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988. The federal acts include the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, which was the old Trade Practices Act, and the Life Insurance Act, and then there are the associated regulations that go with that.

Recent data available in CHOICE Magazine, from Australia's leading consumer organisation, reveals that the average cost for a funeral in Australia is between $8,000 and $12,000, and between $4,000 and $7,000 for a cremation. These figures are quite often very difficult to meet by remaining members of family and friends. It seemed to me, judging from the complaints and inquiries that I had, that it really does mean that we need to look into this industry.

One of the areas that Ms Portelli looked at was an overview of the industry. I was concerned and also surprised to find that the Australian funeral industry has its foundations in the entry of two large US funeral corporations, Service Corporation International (SCI) and Stewart Enterprises. Apparently they entered Australia in the early 1990s and took up buying established funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums, particularly services situated in capital cities. Despite these businesses being bought up by SCI and Stewart Enterprises, the original business names and personnel were retained, having the effect of leaving customers unaware of the change of ownership.

In the next 10 years, these two US companies suddenly withdrew from the Australian market, I am told, and other multinationals decided to get into this industry in Australia. One of them is Bledisloe Holdings and the other is InvoCare. In particular, Bledisloe Holdings has built up a strong suite of well-known funeral homes across Australia and New Zealand and today is one of the top three operators in several of the key markets in the funeral industry. It is known that Bledisloe Holdings currently owns 52 funeral homes and three cemeteries and crematoria. InvoCare is now the largest provider of funeral services in Australia and Singapore and operates under the best known trading names in Australia, including White Lady Funerals, Blackwell Funerals and Simplicity Funerals. InvoCare apparently is the largest operator of private cemeteries and crematoria in Australia. Today, InvoCare holds a total of 178 funeral homes and 12 cemeteries and crematoria. There is a lot of evidence that Ms Portelli put together for me, but I found the ownership issue—something that I had heard about vaguely—to be of concern.

One of the things I would like to suggest is that at some stage the Social Development Committee look into this industry. The work that Ms Portelli has done is a good start but, judging from the complaints and inquiries that I have received, it seems that this whole area does need some review.

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