Sydney cemetery review reccomends major changes to sector

Sydney’s average funeral costs are the highest in Australia but a report into the city’s cemetery sector has called for urgent change to reduce the financial impositions on families.

National parks and Crown land could be used as unmarked burial grounds following a landmark review commissioned by the NSW Government.

A long-awaited report into the city’s cemetery sector has called for an urgent increase in Crown-operated burial space, which is set to run out within 10 years.

The NSW Department of Planning commissioned report also recommended transparent pricing for families, mandatory turnover of all future non-religious gravesites and removal of provisions that make it hard to be buried without a coffin.

Water, Property and Housing Minister Melinda Pavey said “the NSW Government will review all the recommendations within the review in due course”.

“Our cemeteries sector is an important part of the fabric of our communities, ensuring its viability into the future is a key focus of the NSW Government,” she said.

Sydney has the highest average funeral cost in Australia. Picture: AAP Image/Joel Carrett

“Ensuring all people, of all faiths, have a right to affordable burials of their loved ones is a basic human right.”

The report also focused on allowing families to easily compare the cost of burying or cremating their loved ones.

Operators would be forced to produce itemised bills, consistent terminology and plain English terms and conditions.

Sydney’s five separate trust boards would also be rolled into one, known as OneCrown, resulting in $4.5m of yearly savings in corporate overheads alone.

There is a combined deficit of over $310m across the Crown cemetery operators when comparing maintenance liabilities with their assets.

The government hopes the changes will bring down Sydney’s average funeral cost of $8357, which is the highest in Australia.

A water spout forms in storm clouds off coast of Sydney as seen when photographed from Eastern Suburbs Cemetary at Waverley.

One senior source said the changes will make it harder for ethnic groups to be ripped off.

“Chinese plots can go for $30,000 while only a few metres away in the general section people will only pay $13,000,” they said.

There needs to be 436ha of burial space found in the next 99 years, an area more than twice the size of Centennial Parklands.

Two-thirds (67.9 per cent) of the state’s corpses are cremated while the rest are buried.

“If the government adopts all of the recommendations we would hope there would be downward pressure on prices,” Rookwood General Cemetery interim CEO Lee Shearer said.

“If we are to accommodate all faiths and their individual decisions about interments we need to ensure a significant amount of land is acquired.”

The sector has been beset by internal difficulties. In 2018 two board members of the Southern Cemeteries Trust were sacked for “improper conduct” relating to the awarding of government contracts.

John Hewson paid $5.2m for the purchase of two farms for a potential cemetery. Picture: Joel Carrett

Last year Ms Pavey ordered an investigation into former federal opposition leader John Hewson’s $5.2m purchase of two farms for a potential cemetery — a purchase made without ministerial approval.

Mr Hewson insisted there was nothing untoward about the purchase of two properties in Sydney’s northwest by the Northern Metropolitan Cemeteries Land Manager — a public trust he chairs.

That investigation “identified some procedural issues which are being addressed”, according to the regulator Cemeteries and Crematoria NSW.

A spokesman for the not for profit Catholic Cemeteries + Crematoria said “We are working for all Sydneysiders to deliver cost effective funeral and burial spaces for all denominations and currently have two acquisitions of an additional 180,000 spaces in train to alleviate the anticipated shortage”.

“These cemeteries will be parklands that the whole community can enjoy, with bike and walking tracks, cafes, lakes and wide open spaces for families,” he said.

Originally published as Sydney cemetery review reccomends major changes to sector