Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Centennial Park Cemetery is a well-known part of my electorate. It was established in 1936, and most residents in my electorate would have relatives who are buried there and may also have been to funeral services conducted there. I rise on the issue of war graves, which is of importance to my electorate, especially to veterans, RSL groups and veterans’ families.

Currently there are three types of graves for veterans. The Australian government pays tenure for the graves of war dead from World War I and World War II and from Korea and Vietnam. The second category is for the graves of those who have died post war from war related injuries. In this case the tenure is the responsibility of the next of kin, and the Australian government provides a plaque. The third category is for veterans who die post war but not from war related injuries.

One of the problems we have in South Australia is that we have limited tenure for grave sites. Leases are held for only 50 years. What has happened is that the leases in Derrick Gardens, which was established in Centennial Park in 1952, started to come up in 2002, and signs were placed on the graves asking relatives to renew their leases. This occurs only in South Australia and Western Australia, where there is limited tenure. In other states, graves are there in perpetuity.

Many families believed that the graves of veterans did have perpetual tenure. In 2002 the previous Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Danna Vale, wrote to the South Australian Premier, Mike Rann, asking for a legislative change to remove limited tenure from the graves of our war dead. A South Australian parliamentary select committee was established to look at the whole issue of the tenure of graves. The Office of Australian War Graves made a submission and appeared before the committee. It requested that Commonwealth war dead be excluded from laws relating to tenure. However, the report tabled on 24 November 2003 by the select committee did not address this issue. This issue has been raised with me by veterans groups, continuing from 2002 to the present day.

In response to some of the pressure, yesterday the South Australian state government announced that they would be saving the expired leases with a $75,000 maintenance deal for two cemeteries, Centennial Park in my electorate and Enfield Cemetery in the north of Adelaide. The problem with this is it does not address the wider issue. What is actually required is a change in South Australian law allowing for Commonwealth war graves to have tenure in perpetuity. I understand the South Australian Attorney-General is opposed to this on the basis that it means less money for the different cemetery trusts. But the relative number of veterans’ graves is not so large that it would have a significant impact on cemeteries. I also note that the shadow Attorney-General, the Hon. Robert Lawson, has announced that it will be the Liberal opposition’s policy to have perpetual leases for all war veterans, to rest in peace. This is the solution that is required. It does require a change in South Australian legislation, and I will be fighting to ensure that the graves of all veterans are held in perpetuity and do not come up every 50 years.