Burial Act speed-up bid

ANGLICAN Bishop Richard Condie has written to Attorney-General Elise Archer to ask for an expedited review of the Burial and Cremation Act in light of plans to sell 76 Tasmanian churches.

The State Government indicated the Act may need strengthening in the wake of the planned property sales, after concerns were raised about the management of cemeteries and future visitation.

Ms Archer has taken on responsibility for reviewing the legislation due to responsible Minister Peter Gutwein’s family ties to the Patersonia Church.

Ms Archer said the Government had already acted swiftly in moving to review the Act, and was committed to preserving, protecting and strengthening the rights of community members and obligations on cemetery managers.

Bishop Condie told the Mercury yesterday he had written to the Attorney-General, asking her to expedite the process of reviewing the Burial and Cremation Act 2002 and strengthening it if required.

“The diocese is committed to working with the Government as it responds to community concerns,” he said.

The Bishop was earlier reported as saying he had wept over the prospect of selling churches to fund redress, but “we have no other choice”.

Bishop Condie said he was “overwhelmingly sad” that the diocese had to sell the properties “because of the evil people who were in our church.”

“I am overwhelmingly sad for the communities that may well lose their church as a result of this,” he said.

“I have wept over this, I have laid awake at night over this, I do not want to do this.”

The Anglican Church Synod voted on Saturday to proceed with the sale of 108 properties around the state, including 76 churches, to help raise the $8 million estimated liability the diocese will have under the national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse.

Bishop Condie left the door open to negotiations with parishes over the sales.

“Local parishes are already coming to us and saying ‘look, we’ve got a block of land and three churches on the list, how about we sell the block of land and give you 100 per cent of the proceeds of that and we’ll get to keep our churches?’ Fine, we’re happy with that. We need to raise the $8 million.”

Bishop Condie and Anglican Diocese of Tasmania general manager James Oakley yesterday met with representatives of the Hobart City Council to discuss the future of Fern Tree’s St Raphael’s church.

A final decision on any properties in dispute will be made in December.