Member for Swan Hill Peter Walsh has asked the Victorian Health Minister to step in to end a distressing cemetery imbroglio.
Detailing the imbroglio in Parliament on Tuesday, Mr Walsh said Lake Boga woman Janice Miller had been fighting to have a plot she owned adjoining her parents’ reinstated to her.
The plot formed a family plot at the Colac Public Cemetery and was the dying wish of Mrs Miller’s father.
“Mrs Miller made a distressing discovery last year that the plot she bought four years ago contained the ashes of a stranger, breaking up the family plot,” Mr Walsh said.
“Since then she has been handballed from one authority to the next trying to have the mistake rectified, but the most appalling treatment has been at the hands of the Department of Human Services.
“As the department responsible for overseeing cemeteries, DHS should have tried to find resolution.
“DHS abrogated this responsibility because it didn’t want to create a precedent, so it referred her on to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).”
Mr Walsh said a bizarre legal loophole prevented VCAT from hearing matters on in-ground cremation plots such as Mrs Miller’s, and she was pointed to the Victorian Ombudsman.
He said a vigorous investigation by the Ombudsman had supported Mrs Miller’s claim that she ‘owned’ the plot and in a ruling earlier this month recommended that the stranger’s ashes be moved.
“This should have been the end of the matter but DHS has ignored the impartial advice of the Ombudsman and is callously objecting to the ruling,” Mr Walsh said.
“This whole process has taken a significant emotional and financial toll on Mrs Miller and her family and by objecting to the ruling DHS is drawing out this process even further.
“Minister Andrews must intervene in the name of compassion and common sense, and direct DHS to withdraw its objection so that Mrs Miller’s and her husband’s ashes can eventually be interred in the plot she legitimately purchased — beside her late mother and father.”
Media Contact: Peter Walsh (03) 5032 3154
