We have written to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on behalf of our members, providing feedback on the proposed fuel prioritisation bands.
Our submission highlights the essential role funeral directors play in New Zealand’s health and emergency response system, particularly in the timely transfer, care, and lawful disposal of the deceased. We have advocated for appropriate recognition of funeral services within the priority bands to ensure continuity of care for families and communities.
A copy of our correspondence is included below:
Tēnā koe
I write on behalf of the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand, an industry group representing around 70% of the funeral directors in New Zealand.
We note you are currently seeking input on the indicative bands for fuel prioritisation. We note the ‘labels’ currently applied risk missing the critical services our members provide as ‘last’ as opposed to ‘first’ responders in the health space.. We ask that funeral services are explicitly recognised in the guidelines and submit that the majority of our body retrieval work would fit into Band A. Funerals and disposal services fit within Bank B given the legislative requirement to dispose of a body in a timely way. Further information is provided below.
Coronial transfers – Band A
A number of our members hold contracts for transport of bodies for coronial purposes. This is an often unseen part of an emergency response but requires that our members have uncapped supply of fuel to collect bodies from an emergency, crime or other unexplained death scene and deliver to a mortuary for immediate coronial review. Police / ambulance services do not have training in how to transfer deceased bodies and putting the responsibility on them would mean they cannot deal with life supporting services. It is critical funeral directors involved in transfer services are classified as part of Band A services.
Transfers from rest homes / hospitals – Band A
The majority of deaths are amongst the elderly who die in rest homes. While hospitals usually have some limited storage facility, rest homes do not and funeral directors are asked to collect the bodies almost immediately on death (some rest homes will call to arrange transfer 24/7). Further, some cultures and religions require immediate release of bodies which would be hindered if fuel was not available for immediate transfer. For example Māori families ask that we embalm and release a body back to their whānau’s care within 12 – 24 hours. We believe the transfer work of funeral directors should be classified as part of Band A services.
Funerals and disposal services, plus associated funeral suppliers – Band B
Section 46E of the Burials and Cremations Act requires that: A person having charge of a body must, within a reasonable time of taking charge, either dispose of it (burial or cremation), or transfer charge of it to another person for disposal. This is because of the health risk of bodies decomposing.
We note that Band B, while again named in a way that doesn’t necessarily relate obviously to funeral service, recognises ‘time-critical’ services. Since disposal of a body is required by law to be completed in a timely way, we believe services supplied by our members and sector partners need to be classified as Band B. This includes:
- Funerals. Fuel is required to transfer the body from the funeral home, to the family for viewing if sought, and to the funeral venue. Also for the transfer of the deceased to the place of disposal.
- Cremation and burials (mix of funeral director owned, council and private). Some cremators are diesel powered. Others are gas. Burials require vehicles to dig the holes.
- Associated funeral suppliers needed to perform these services, particularly casket makers, and suppliers of essential chemicals such as embalming fluids. Funeral suppliers deliver on time at need throughout the country as funeral homes cannot hold large quantities of caskets (space issues – different caskets are needed for different sized people) or chemicals (safety issues).
Long distances
A survey of our members shows that most drive at least 400km a week with around a third travelling more than 1,000 km a week. This is particularly the case where our members service rural or mixed urban/rural communities. Coronial work has a particularly high mileage requirement given government retrenchment of local hospital mortuary services to centralised facilities in major centres. Our need for access to fuel is critical to providing our services for grieving families.
Attendees at funerals
While outside our control, we would also ask officials consider some dispensation to enable the public to attend the physical funerals of their loved ones. We were at the front line of the grief and despair of families unable to attend funerals during Covid. We ask that the government take care to do all it can to avoid this harm in considerations of the current crisis.
I would be happy to arrange for you to speak with members of my Board who are all practising funeral directors if this would be helpful for your planning. We have spoken publicly on this already and refer you to further points made in a Stuff article today.
Ngā mihi
Gillian Boyes
CEO, Funeral Directors Association NZ