A nationwide search has been launched for a new Administrator of NSW Crown Lands’ four Sydney cemeteries, collectively known as OneCrown, following an independent review.
Releasing a redacted version of the OneCrown Governance Health Check report, Minister for Lands and Property, Steve Kamper said the future of the four cemetery operators – Northern Metropolitan Cemeteries, Rookwood General Cemeteries, Rookwood Necropolis and Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries – had been in limbo for years.
Mr Kamper said the day-to-day management of the cemeteries had been overseen by an Administrator and an executive team since May 2021, following a recommendation of the 2020 independent Statutory Review of the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act 2013 that a single entity for Crown cemeteries be established.
He said the Statutory Review, and this key recommendation, had remained ‘under consideration’ by the previous Government – increasing the risk that Sydney would run out of cemetery space.
The OneCrown Governance Health Check report found “continued uncertainty over whether Land Managers will be amalgamated continues to hinder progress to achieve both a better economic outcome for Government and service delivery outcome for the general public.”
“Delay will further inhibit the ability of OneCrown to realise its strategic objectives and potentially increase the risk that the Crown may not be able to adequately provide for the burial needs of residents of Sydney and surrounding areas into the future,” the report says.
Mr Kemper said that an audit into the supply of cemetery space in Sydney would be conducted and a decision made on the amalgamation of the OneCrown operators “to ensure they have a transparent and clear roadmap for the future, and moving towards a two public operator model for cemeteries in NSW.”
The 48-page OneCrown Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
