A GRAVE CONCERN

I am mystified today. And it is about a story we covered on 3AW yesterday and I promised I would follow up on today. It concerns the Cheltenham and Regional Cemeteries Trust. And I have been wondering: what exactly does a “Cemeteries Trust” do? And why do they need so many members? And how come some Trust members have been there for decades? And who appoints them? And why do Trust members need to go to conferences in Las Vegas and The Hague?

I mean, what can you learn there about burying bodies? It sounds crude but people have been burying bodies for hundreds, even thousands, of years. You dig a hole and put the coffin in it.

This all comes out because of the report I mentioned on 3AW about excessive, possibly – even probably – criminal expenditure by the Trust executives. Especially the former cemetery boss John Gilbertson, who was not named in the report for some reason.

He awarded nearly half a million dollars worth of IT work to one of his sons. He gave nearly $100,000 worth of paving work to a company run by another son. Gilbertson – presumably with the Trust’s imprimatur – bought a $30,000 car for his wife’s personal use. The Trust guaranteed a quarter of a million dollar loan for Gilbertson and his wife for six months.

They paid for overseas trips for Gilbertson and his wife and they paid him around $180,000 a year. The Trust paid for golf days, and booze and flowers and $19,000 for “a family fun day” for staff and families and funeral directors.

There was even a $45,000 bill to send Trust member and partners and staff to a conference in Perth.

What the hell has this got to do with planting dead bodies in graves?
This is Noddyland. And how come the Government, or the auditors, didn’t know about it?

AS they used to say in the TV ads: It’s your money Ralph.

And then the penny dropped. This man. This leech. I have argued with him on radio before. He was the callous, sanctimonious parasite who once tried to stop grieving parents from putting toys on their children’s graves.

And all the time this leech was living the life of Riley.

Thursday, May 5, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005