Naracoorte Lucindale Council votes against waiving ‘unnecessary’ burial charge for stillborn babies
A South-East mum has spoken of the “worst moment” of her life and how a council’s “heartless” decision is just “unnecessary”.
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A mother who understands the loss of a baby has slammed a South-East council for its “heartless” decision not to remove burial fees for stillborn and perinatal children.
The Naracoorte Lucindale Council last week refused to waive burial fees for stillborn and perinatal babies after a warning that setting the precedent could lead to “death by a thousand cuts” for its budget.
A letter from the Select Committee into Stillbirth in South Australia on April 30 encouraged the council to consider the removal of fees — which currently costs between $570 and $1258 — after Berri Barmera and Salisbury Councils waived them earlier this year.
Three councillors voted to support the decision, Damien Ross, Monique Crossling and Craig McGuire.
Those against were Cameron Grundy, Tom Dennis, Trevor Rayner, Andrew Downward, Peter Ireland and Abigail Goodman.
Naracoorte mum, Amanda Wardle, 51, lost her daughter Brianna 22 years ago to a degenerative nerve condition — Brianna was only 18-months old.
Ms Wardle said she understood losing a child so young and then having to manage financial burdens posed by fees and funerals.
She said the “community embraced us” when Brianna died, and raised enough money to cover all costs including burial fees and the funeral.
But she now feared for any other locals, and her own children, who may in future have to manage a big bill on top of losing a child.
“It’s the worst moment of your life, nobody prepares you for this sort of grief,” Ms Wardle said.
“I can relate to a parent having to bury a child and then be hit with this fee, and it’s not necessary.
“I really feel like the council’s decision was heartless, it really hurts.”
Ms Wardle said she hoped the council could reconsider its decision, but would “step in and pay the next one” if it couldn’t be done.
Speaking to The Advertiser, Mayor Patrick Ross said he understood it was “an incredibly emotional subject” but “a decision of council is a decision of council”.
During the meeting, Mr Grundy said waiving the fees “seeks to set out that there’s a different kind of grief”.
“It sets out to put a price on grief, and that is that your grief is more deserving than mine so we’ll go and waive the fees,” he said.
“From that perspective it’s problematic philosophically, it’s inconsistent I think.”
Mr Grundy said rather than waiving fees, anyone struggling with payments should be considered under a hardship basis that “needs to be for everybody or not at all”.
After speaking with community members, Mr Downward said many people were “against us waving the fee”.
“One of the people said to me: ‘if you’re going to do that, what about long-term ratepayers who have been paying their rates for 60-odd years or more’,” he said.
“’Do you look at them and give them a free pass for the time they’ve been paying rates to the community’.”
The deputy mayor, Ms Goodman, said she had been “backwards and forwards” on her position, she felt it “isn’t something that is the responsibility of the council”.
“I know it’s only small dollars that we’re talking about, but I also subscribe to the idea of a death by a thousand cuts and we are currently looking at delivering a budget that will be in deficit but also continuously being asked to provide more,” she said.
“Insulted” by his fellow councillor’s comments, Mr McGuire apologised to viewers of the meeting who may have experienced the loss of a baby.
“I find the chamber isn’t very compassionate about this,” he said.
“I think there were probably two to three stillborn in Naracoorte this year so the cost is minimal. This is something that we can do as a council about being compassionate to our community.”
Following the vote against waiving burial fees for stillborn/perinatal babies, the cheapest burial cost is $570 for existing leases at the Old Naracoorte Cemetery.
Burial of a child up to two years in the lawn cemetery costs $625, while cremation costs $1258.
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Originally published as Naracoorte Lucindale Council votes against waiving ‘unnecessary’ burial charge for stillborn babies
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