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

This week, campaigners for Save Sorry Business have come to the national parliament. The Save Sorry Business campaigners are a small group of people in number, but they are the voice for more than 13,000 Aboriginal policyholders of the failed ACBF/Youpla funeral fund. Senators will recall that the Aboriginal community funeral benefit fund collapsed in March 2022, leaving more than 13,000 Aboriginal people from across our country—some of them elderly and in palliative care—without the financial means to pay for family funerals. The Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund, which was not Aboriginal controlled or run, sold junk funeral insurance plans to Indigenous people across Australia for more than 30 years. Innocent people, choosing to make responsible financial planning decisions for themselves, have been let down by financial regulations and by financial regulators in Australia. Some people have lost not a little bit of money but up to $40,000 of their savings. The Save Sorry Business says:

Tens of thousands of people are now living in debt, shame and torment knowing that their children and family members will have to pay for their Sorry Business.

Today, I met Vennessa Poelina from Broome. Her story is a terrible one, but I committed to Vennessa—in the same way that I've committed to Veronica Johnson, who I've communicated with on email—that as a Western Australia senator I will stand with them so that they can secure the justice they deserve.