KARRAKATTA CEMETERY
RENEWAL PROGRAM
1176. Hon AARON STONEHOUSE to the Leader of the House
representing the Minister for Local Government:
I refer the minister to my question
without notice of 25 September 2019 on the Karrakatta renewal program, and
specifically to part (3) of that question, which remains unanswered and so I will
ask it again. If, as the minister intimated
in his reply, the refusal of Ms Trigwell's request for a re-grant in
relation to her grandparent's plot was not included in the
figures that the minister supplied to me in response to my earlier question of
18 September because she was told by email that she was not able to proceed
with a formal application, how many other individuals have received similar advice from the Metropolitan
Cemeteries Board, either in person, by telephone or by email this year?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
The honourable member would be aware
that the Karrakatta renewal program is both a sensitive and important program for the sustainability of the Karrakatta
Cemetery. If the renewal process were to cease, Karrakatta Cemetery
would eventually become a closed cemetery. The minister has outlined the
circumstances relating to his response to previous questions. Records are not
maintained for every telephone inquiry made to the cemetery. However, it is
open to any affected person, regardless of the advice received, to lodge a formal
application and it would be dealt with on its merits. However, the minister has
also outlined how the Metropolitan Cemeteries Board could assist an applicant
in these circumstances—that is, purchase a new grant of right of burial
elsewhere within the cemetery, purchase a crypt in the planned mausoleum,
cremate the remains or leave remains in situ and negotiate with the
Metropolitan Cemeteries Board to relocate the headstone. With all options, the
Metropolitan Cemeteries Board will cover the cost of exhumation and
reinterment.