Labor is supporting this bill as previous speakers have detailed
but there are valid concerns about the implications for thousands of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people who have signed up for funeral cover under
the Aboriginal community benefits fund and I'd like to bring this to the
attention of this Senate because I think Minister its enormously important that
these stories the First Nations people are heard here on the record and
certainly I would like to see in terms of my constituency in the Northern
Territory but indeed right across Australia that there is a profound
effort to look at these concerns that I'm going to raise in in my speech.
Schedule two of this legislation extends consumer protection provisions of the
ASIC Act 2001 to cover funeral insurance policies. The interim report of the Hayne
Royal Commission identified a number of issues with funeral insurance. In
particular the sale of funeral insurance products to First Nations people.
Recommendation 4.2 from the Royal Commission interim report proposed
removing the exemptions for funeral expenses policies. It says the law should
be amended to remove the exclusion of funeral expenses policies from the
definition of financial product and put beyond doubt that the consumer
protection provisions of the ASIC Act apply to funeral expenses policies.
There is a history of vulnerable people being targeted and exploited by dodgy selling
practices when it comes to funeral expenses policies. Now I just digress a
bit just to give you an example across the Northern Territory. We have over 200
communities remote communities but our death rates are so enormously high and
we're obviously going to hear more about that in closing the gap next week in the
report by the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader to the Parliament but
in terms of funerals lots of communities
We have over 100 Aboriginal languages. There is sorry business at some place or more
than one place across the Northern Territory every week. Sorry business
where someone's passed away where those who are sick
usually on renal dialysis or other health complications choose to go back
home because they want to be on country so the costs involved in holding
funerals in these places across remote regions of Australia are enormously high
from the protection of the body in the morgues a lot of the morgues are not in
these communities therefore places like Alice Springs,
Tennant Creek, Katherine and Darwin and Nhulunbuy become the focus.
Places in Arnhem Land that cannot hold bodies, they then have to work out places in the wet
season to be able to fly their loved ones in so the cost just of burial is
extremely high in these remote places. The Hayne Royal Commission heard some
disturbing and quite frankly sickening examples of how First Nations people
have been targeted by companies with some what can only be described as dodgy
selling practices. I would go so far to say it's worse than dodgy, it is
certainly about greed it is certainly about an uncaring
position towards those who are enormously vulnerable in Australia.
It must be remembered that First Nations people have lower life expectancy higher
morbidity rates, high risk of life-threatening illness and we spend a
lot of time at funerals. I'm constantly involved with families
across the Northern Territory and constituents with some aspect of sorry
business. Just over their Christmas and New Year break we were remembering a
number of family members for people in Arnhem Land in the Gulf
region and also in the Wadeye region in the west of the Territory. Too much time and
too much money from the First Nations community is spent on the death industry
and it's something this Senate could actually have a really good look at.
When I mention that the the cost of having funerals, there are other additional
costs that come in in terms of being able to relocate loved ones from the
hospitals or morgues in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek or Alice Springs and
Nhulunbuy. There are costs like will they fly their loved ones or will they
come by road, what about in the wet season when some of those roads are cut
and then we have issues with particular places like Borroloola where my family come
from and the other communities that do have morgues, when the power goes down
when technology goes down due to flooding or any other circumstances
there is a roll on effect of the cost and then there is the emotional and
well-being cost to families themselves in how to deal with the loss of a loved
one. If I can just reflect on my clan system, with the Yanyuwa Garrwa people
when someone passes away a couple of things come into place. The first thing
is the respect of that person who's died. We can't say their name so in my
language we call that person Murrdunji. Murrdunji means that person has passed
away and we can't say their name anymore and we we follow that respect right up
to the burial of the person and for many many families the burial of a person can
take up to three months up to three months before they can actually have the
funeral. So the sorry business period is from the immediate moment that
a loved one dies to when the loved one is buried, so if financially, people have
been unable to afford the cost of a funeral, afford the
cost of transporting a body by plane or by a vehicle to also have to pay for the
cost of a coffin. All these things are considered in that period of sorry
business mourning. Now sometimes in Arnhem Land that can blow out to six
months. If you talk to some of the hospitals in the Northern Territory they
will tell you that they've had bodies in there for many many months and this is
unfortunately the reality of First Nations people in particular in the
Northern Territory and I'm sure, I'm absolutely certain that it's replicated
in Far North Queensland and certainly in the Far West of Western Australia and
possibly across the country but again the Senate needs to be able to examine
just what is going on in this space of sorry business and death.
The Hayne Royal Commission has clearly outlined and made some very real comments about
the efficacy or lack of efficacy of the Aboriginal Community Benefits Fund and I
do want to speak very clearly about that and the absolute need for the government
to make sure that the people who have invested in that scheme and we know that
there are thousands of those people are not disenfranchised because of the
passing of this Bill and the potential for organisations to fall over.
My colleagues in the other place have written to the Minister drawing his
attention to the 19,000 people who have invested in the Aboriginal Community
Benefits Fund over many years. They invested in good faith and should not be
left out of pocket, disadvantaged because of this legislation. I would also say
that more needs to be done to prevent all Australians and in particular First
Nations people in remote areas from being fleeced by very very expensive funerals.
I believe we need to look at the overall expenses and profits being
made by the industry that surrounds death. People should not
be exploited at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives