Vesting of Catholic Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust Land in the Crown
Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria Trust Bill 2024
Legislative Assembly
Legislative Council
Assent
Introduced by: The Hon Stephen Kamper MP (ALP); The Hon Daniel Mookhey MLC (ALP)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Susan Carter LIB
“It seems rather fitting, if somewhat surreal, that after midnight we are discussing what happens at the midnight of our lives, in debating the Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria Trust Bill 2024. Death is one of the two immutable certainties, and funerals and respectful burial practices are a key marker of the existence of an ordered and civilised society.”
Cate Faehrmann GRN
“The Greens strongly oppose the Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria Trust Bill 2024. It is fitting that we are meeting here after midnight. It is giving me flashbacks to midnight mass, which I religiously attended with my dad as a little Catholic girl in my hometown of Laidley in country Queensland. Just to put it on the record, I had 12 years of Catholic education.”
John Graham ALP
“I thank the Hon. Susan Carter for her contribution, and the Opposition for supporting the bill. I thank Ms Cate Faehrmann for her contribution to the debate. She has expressed her views in a range of ways on other occasions also, but not in as lengthy a form. I will address some of the matters she raised. In particular, I will address the matter of consultation.”
News articles and press releases
Catholic Cemeteries and Crematoria Trust Bill 2024
Mr STEPHEN KAMPER, Minister for Small Business — 2024-06-06
The narrow terms of the trust mean that CMCT has inadvertently breached the trust in two ways: by interring the dead of all faiths and those without a faith; and by using proceeds from Rookwood to provide burial services at other sites. I may say that all that was done in good faith. In other words, the terms of the trust do not allow CMCT or its successor to operate in a way that serves the whole community. As a modern Crown cemetery operator, CMCT manages its cemeteries as a portfolio and for the benefit of all people in need of burial services. It is critical that CMCT’s successor is empowered to continue to do so. The bill expands the trust’s narrow purpose. CMCT’s successor will be able to use those trust funds to bury people of all faiths, and those without a faith, across all its Crown cemeteries.