A few months ago, my father passed away suddenly. It was a traumatic time for me and my family, made only more difficult by the uncaring, totally disrespectful way the funeral director engaged with us. All he cared about was getting paid. He even threatened not to proceed with my father’s funeral, forcing my mum to pay the full amount before my brother and I could receive any payouts from our insurance companies. 

This was such a painful experience for our family. It haunts me to think of how the funeral home would have treated my father behind-the-scenes considering their total lack of empathy and unprofessionalism with us. I’m calling on the NSW government to regulate the funeral industry to protect other families like us from being mistreated by the funeral industry.

I understand that this is a business and that you have to pay for a service. But surely when it comes to farewelling our loved ones that service is also meant to provide compassion and peace of mind to the family? 

There is little recourse for grieving families when things go wrong. The industry needs more regulation. We need price transparency and a mandatory code of conduct for funeral directors to abide by. Funeral homes play a significant role in the community and it’s important they get it right.

People can be extremely vulnerable while grieving. Often they can’t think clearly and are the complete mercy of funeral homes who dictate how the process will run. There is an urgent need to ensure transparency and accountability by introducing state or national standards of pricing and codes of conduct.

Please sign and share the petition to protect grieving families from dubious tactics employed by some in the funeral industry. The industry needs to be regulated now.