Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

She is. The funeral fund gives Aboriginal people on the Central Coast access to a low-cost, immediate-cover funeral fund and provides for culturally sensitive funerals. The Darkinjung funeral fund is the first in Australia to be run by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people and is set aside from other funeral funds in that it provides benefits to families for funeral expenses from the time of their first weekly payment—that is a very low $3.50, well below the market rate.

The fund contribution by members is subsidised heavily by the Darkinjung funeral fund. Children of members can join for an even lower weekly contribution of just 50c. Each family will be covered for the member’s funeral expenses up to $6,850, and that includes a no-questions-asked bereavement payment of $850. This fund means that members’ families no longer need to struggle or do without adequate funeral arrangements for loved ones.

This is not the only service to be provided through an initiative by Darkinjung; they also have a cattle company which last year exported over $1 million worth of beef to Japan, returning almost 20 per cent to the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council investment in its first year of operation. The return on this investment will help sustain the Darkinjung membership for years to come. I commend all of these organisations for their contributions to the Central Coast.

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