Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There has been a financial regulatory failure that cannot be allowed to be forgotten and that deserves our best heart when it comes to crafting a solution. It concerns the abuse of vulnerable people, often in remote areas of Australia, who have been left out of pocket and exposed by an entity they trusted to support them and their families at an incredibly sensitive time. The Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, or Youpla, sold bad funeral insurance plans to Indigenous policyholders for more than 30 years, with some losing up to $40,000 of their savings when it collapsed in March 2022. Despite its claims, this fund was not Aboriginal controlled or operated. It has left a widespread legacy of debt and distress for people who are taking personal responsibility for the sorry business arrangements of themselves and those they loved.

I first met with members of the Save Sorry Business campaign and those they are supporting during an event here in Parliament House earlier this year, and I spoke about it in the Senate the same day. I also raised the matter in the most recent round of Senate budget estimates hearings, where I asked ASIC about attempted compensation, the investigation into the conduct of the former directors of the ACBF and the geographical dispersion of those affected. One of ASIC's responses to questions taken on notice stood out in particular to me. It said there was not any state or territory in Australia that has been left untouched by the harm of this entity.

I've also been in touch with groups supporting affected locals in Western Australia's Kimberley region and committed to visit them, which I did a couple of weeks ago in Broome. At Broome CIRCLE, I met with financial adviser Veronica Johnson and a number of survivors who travelled from surrounding communities. It was an understandably open and emotional discussion, and I was grateful to share in it. Some people had purchased plans for a significant number of family members. One of those present was Bernadette Angus, a traditional owner from the Bardi Jawi people on the Dampier Peninsula. She had hoped to come to Canberra herself but was unable to do so. Instead, she presented me with a letter that she has asked me to read into this parliament, which I will do. She says:

Dear Senator Dean Smith,

My name is Bernadette Angus, I am a Traditional owner from the Bardi Jawi people in the Kimberley region.

I want to start by thanking you for giving me an opportunity to talk on my behalf of my people regarding the collapsed ACBF/Youpla funeral plans that have affected so many Aboriginal people in my community and around Australia.

In 2005 ACBF/Youpla Funeral insurance mob came to Djarindjin community, pretended to be an Aboriginal organization, they displayed some goods such as key rings, magnets, and banners all in the colors of the Aboriginal flags. They told us they were an Aboriginal organization, and they could help us for when the time came, we believed them and I signed up myself, my daughter and her partner who was not well enough to sign a contract he could not understand. We have all been robbed and lied to by this mob and we would like to see justice being done.

ACBF took our money for many years and used the Centrepay to access our Centrelink payments with some paying from their baby money, since the ACBF have collapsed it has left us all with no money to bury our family and left us all in financial stress when someone passes. This is so unfair that we have been lied to and robbed, not just in the Kimberley but right around Australia.

We have now lost all our trust in all funeral insurance plans and have no money for funerals for our people after paying ACBF/Youla for so many years, we would like to get some justice in the form of compensation, maybe a funeral plan that is going to be protected by the government so that this disaster that happened with ACBF/Youpla never happens again.

Please Respect and Protect our Sorry Business for all our people.

Bernadette Angus

Traditional Owner

Bardi Jawi

This, indeed, is a sorry state of affairs. It has gone on for a long time. There is movement, but in finding a solution—and we hope a solution will come before the end of the year—let us be the best we can be, find the best hearts, to correct this terrible injustice that has been delivered upon some of the most vulnerable people in our community, who were prepared and were taking financial responsibility for their own affairs. This is outrageous, and we need to be the best we can be.

Senate adjourned at 17:50