After Death: Behind the scenes of Australia’s funeral industry | Four Corners

[Music] it's 5:45 in the morning in Coburg North in Melbourne this van is loaded with bodies they're about to be taken 200 kilometers north to New South Wales for cremation at the end of the day these people aren't meat they can't just be shipped around because it's convenient the van is owned by one of Australia's largest independent funeral companies do you tell customers that their loved one could be going with potentially four other people in a van up the highway over the border it's not something that we we don't disclose [Music] most Australians will organize at least one funeral in their lifetime but many of us have no idea how funeral companies deal with the dead our biggest concern is most of the public believe or think we're a regulated industry we're not already loaded industry [Music] I'm sometimes horrified by some of the things I come across in the funeral industry the general underlying overcharging bad behavior pressuring or families things like that is very concerning and I think a lot of people would be very uncomfortable if they knew the families at their most vulnerable and most grieving are often dear manipulative treating the person who's passed away with dignity is incredibly important I at times shudder to think when I pass away if nothing's changed I don't necessarily want to go through the process as it is today with many companies it can be improved and it should be improved [Music] tonight on four corners we investigate what goes on behind the scenes in this largely unregulated industry we expose the questionable tactics some funeral companies use to win business and make profits from grieving families we also reveal why they keep getting away with it [Music] last year more than 150,000 people died in Australia and most ended up in the hands of a funeral director caring for the dead is now a 1.6 billion dollar industry Nigel Davies owns Mel burns oldest Funeral Home and offers some unusual ways to say goodbye tonight what can you do with your loved ones hushes you can have the urns that are designed to sink in water in case you want to do the cremated version of burial let's see you can have the jewelry your way around the neck my mother-in-law has her husband's ashes under the bed and her dog's ashes around her neck which shows their appropriate status into the life in the extreme case we have somebody in the u.s. at the moment who is being converted to five diamonds six grand a diamond so 30 grand to have your loved one make a nice necklace presumably what's the next frontier for what you can do with your loved one once they're gone I have met somebody who had his mother's ashes converted to ink and literally has his mother tattooed to his arm there's a coffin to suit every taste we've got everything from the wool coffins that we have over here which is obviously for people who want to feel a bit warmer and cuddlier than your traditional timber boxes there are eco-friendly options pure calico unbleached natural material is the ultimate in enviro friendly across Australia the most basic goodbye a cremation with no funeral service can cost as little as one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars the more elaborate can reach the tens of thousands you can get a solid gold one I think 6070 thousand dollars if you go to get a top-end not that I've sold one of those Nigel Davies believes grieving fair families are open to exploitation my biggest concern is effectively families being coerced into things that aren't necessary or aren't appropriate really the funeral industry is like any other industry there's going to be 5% saints and 5% sinners the trouble with the funeral industry is the 5% sinners people should be complaining about but they're not because they can't cope with the emotional cost of complaining about I think it's problematic when the industry is known for its opacity and quite a number of incidences where we see that the industry is being accused of exploiting of practices at the moment in most states anyone can go and hang out a shingle and become a funeral director without any training Nigel Davies staff have just collected a body for cremation they do around 500 funerals a year but independent funeral homes like these are being gobbled up by large corporates if you look at some of the bigger brands they are shareholder focused revenue focused you know there is a very big dollar component attached to the way that they work that's just them I don't believe funeral service belongs in a shareholding environment you know it's it's not an environment where you should be pushing the absolute or optimizing every dollar out of every family Carly Dalton has her own funeral home and is the president of the association of independent funeral professionals she went out on her own because she didn't like the industrial approach of the big companies it would be three or four embalming tables and three or four embalmers working all together male and female and a lot of activity to privacy well it's it's open you know you have her strivers coming in saying is mrs. such-and-such reddy's mr. Brown ready you know where's the paperwork for this where's this for that it's bustling you know a lot of activity a lot of noise and a lot of work Carla Dalton says the corporate business model can lead to higher prices for customers with a lot of the other bigger funeral companies there's a lot of overheads they have lots of offices lots of chapels there's a lot of money and tied up and invested so with that there needed to be revenue made to pay for that infrastructure the lack of price transparency in the funeral industry is centered on the fact that they sell you a package and from within that package it's very difficult to understand what the components that you are buying that make that package up and the feedback that I've received this is serious amount of exploitation going on where people are being you know up sold or sold products and services that they don't really need Sandra van der Laan is a professor of accounting who's investigated the funeral industry the bottom line is that every consumer in the funeral industry is vulnerable so therefore I think that the industry has got a higher duty of care towards the consumers that buying products that they don't necessarily need or want maybe can't afford for some bereaved families dealing with a funeral company can be a traumatic experience in 2012 a Lee Stroud's 22 year old son tom was killed in a car accident we never got to talk about these Victoria's transport accident commission gave the family ten thousand dollars to cover the funeral they chose Lapine one of the best-known brands in the state we started walking around selecting coffins and being asked a multitude of questions it's quite surreal and during that yeah during that time of lario things are rushing through your head but we made these selections got to a point where were finished for that day all that time and we check in as to where we were you know price-wise to insure that we hadn't gone over a budget where you can check in and find out we're gonna are we really now our limits and were advised at the time yeah we were they were pleased with the service but shocked when they received an email from the pine two months later saying they'd gone way over their $10,000 budget it was a massive difference it wasn't just $100 or $200 it was forty seven hundred dollars and we just couldn't fathom and I said we can't do this it's not right and tried to reach an agreement to which we couldn't they knew what the costs were they just didn't advise us and you know whether it was a mistake I'll never know whether it was just outright price gouging it's my gut feel because of the way they handle the whole situation afterwards I mean if you're clean and legitimate in what you're doing you have no issue in presenting it and at the time and going all there's a cost guys you've gone 50 percent over a you okay with that and more importantly you know can you afford it you know and we didn't get that we just got a bill you know a few weeks later and then threats pay otherwise you know you you'll have debt collectors and my imagine credit rating will be you know and the analysis guys on despite the family's concern over the bill Lapine contacted them repeatedly and sent the account to the company's debt collection agency when they couldn't get past my I've been asking myself that actually targeted Daniel Tom's father because he put his name on the paperwork so they admitted me from the process and then just went after they hounded him my wife was so upset that and she knew I'm hard I won't yield and she just didn't want to be seen not paying for her son's funeral and I had to pay it off sorry take it on Heather paid off over the course of a year and tuchis I'm compromising and there was nothing I could do about it because once your pilot that's it was too bad there's no where to complain to Martin herb is the CEO of Invo care the company that owns Lapine where we let the family down is that we didn't inform the family that those additional requests were going to go over and above the cap of the the government in terms of the government contribution and unfortunately they were surprised that when we build them for those additional services why wasn't the family told despite the fact that we have policies and procedures in place we are a a business that has over 1,800 people and within it when you deal with people unfortunately from time to time people will make mistakes and in this case there was a mistake made Thomas's stepfather Gavin believes it was price gouging was it Invacare always looks to price fairly we always make sure that we sit down and talk through with the families what it is that they're doing what their range runs will cost and we're very clear and open about that in this instance where we obviously failed to tell the family that they were going to incur those those additional charges as opposed to the government paying for them is entirely our fault and I apologize for invoker is the biggest funeral operator in Australia the company says last year it conducted about 22 percent of the nation's funerals its brands includes simplicity guardian value cremations its premium offering is white lady the white lady brand was established over 30 years ago it's a very iconic Australian brand and I think the main reason that they choose it partly is because it is completely different to what I will call the traditional male dominated product that existed for many many years within our industry so there is an attraction to having an all-female an all-male lady service a basic service through white lady can start at seven thousand dollars but this doesn't include the cost of cremation or burial in vogue hair brands have different price points but bodies often end up in the same more tree and a treated by the same staff most of the back-of-house stuff's done by the same people no matter which brand you go to so whether you're using one of the Invacare brands the transfers into the facilities and the preparation is all pretty much done by the same people so it doesn't matter which brand you're using the facilities where the preparation takes place or the supplier of the various products all come from the same place so whether you're paying $10,000 for one Invacare brand or 3,000 dollars behind the scenes it's all the same pretty much it pretty much it may well happen in the same mortar II but I mean much like going to a restaurant and you may order a different meal your main course may be a lot more than someone else it still happens in the same in the same kitchen until 2012 Terry Clifton worked for invoker's Lapine brand in Melbourne he's now a competitor running his own small funeral business after becoming frustrated with the company's operations and sales tactics it's the way that the staff are conditioned to upsell or push the product or the add-ons to a funeral itself here give us some examples of that I things like a funeral stationery it could be memorial books flowers you know DVD presentations and stuff where a lot of those can be done some of that stuff can be done by families the funeral homes tend to sort of push those add-ons to the ups up selves themselves and make a little bit more profit out of the funeral Martin Earp says in recent years there have been no incentives for upselling how's the company in the past had incentives for staff to absorb products in the past there may well have been some incentives certainly under my watch we're all about rewarding excellent customer service [Music] Michael Cox is a qualified embalmer who runs his own funeral home he's been in the industry for 22 years he actually passed away at home over a week ago he wants funeral directors to be more open about how they conduct their business and treat the dead with more respect what are some of the worst things you and your staff have seen rubbish out of a garbage bin being put into a coffin you know because they've got no medical waste bin or just purely because I want to get rid of some rubbish and it's been put into the coffin with the deceased if they're run out of room in the core room they'll put deceived people top to type on the same train because I won't say no to a funeral a crematorium run out to a large commit remove Melbourne the stop and become phone came back in said look I've just a station wagon pulled up with three confidence stacked on top of each other so - and then one on top not strapped in just loaded into the back of the wagon thank you Tom the staff there have also told me that they're pulled coathangers out of the chamber so when the cremation chambers where the cremation happens so clearly the families are provided clothing and the clothing has just been throwing him into the coffin with the person coat hanger at all Michael Cox despairs of the lack of oversight of funeral directors and more trees at no stays have local council ever been down to do an inspection to see how looks or how we keep in the disease we need licensing and we need regulations in terms of you know appropriate standards for the care of the diseased person our biggest concern is most of the public believe or think we're a regulated industry we're not a regulated industry the industry needs regulation because the role that we play in a community is a significant role and and the role we also play it's important that we get it right it's important for the family it's important for the family's children to know that the person they loved and cared for is cared for in an appropriate way this is where we start our basic coffin you'll get that particular coffin from start to finish with all that work for $2,900 Ian Gibson runs white dove funeral care in Dandenong South in Melbourne he's been in the business for nearly 30 years you get all our services from start to finish collecting them the deceased from place of death preparation and that he bills himself as a respectful operator but not everyone is happy with the service he provides I operate with no airs and graces what you see is what you again honesty upfront transparent and that's it and I don't read everybody down to the last dollar father Albert yoga Raja encountered in Gibson in 2013 grade five and prepped children were leaving his church after morning Mass and he was preparing for a funeral before the children were out of the building the coffin had been brought into the church the lid was open and the body was inside I turned around to see that coffin was already in the church opened and children were still there and teachers are hurriedly gathering and taken a mobile so I got very upset because children exposed to the open coffee in their father Albert says the children were traumatized so he asked Ian Gibson to close the coffin then he told me look here I am the funeral director I am in charge so you do whatever I'm telling you today that's why you are faithful so I was trying to get out what he did was he opened his hands blocked the entrance and pushed me with his tummy back to my place you know first she did second time also he did then I told him that I will call the police this is harassment I'll call the police then third time when I tried to get out he pushed me and meanwhile my assistant also walked him I pushed him away and came out father Albert his mass was well and truly finished a family member rocked into the city three o'clock in the morning and that family requested a viewing and we weren't to know that father Albert would disallow our viewing in that church he says there were still children in the church when you open the coffin he's telling porkies no I'm not going up that path anymore Ian Gibson was banned from conducting any more funerals in the parish but he kept operating three years later he did the funeral of Nicky Lee who committed suicide at just 38 years of age his men I was quite strange not bad empathy this smirk that came and went he'd taken the details for the death certificate and he was going out the door and turned around and said oh well how did she how did she kill herself we we want to know what kind of body to expect with with a smirk on his face and we were just stunned Nikki's mother Lynn Jones wanted to see her daughter one last time and went to Ian Gibson's funeral home for a viewing at the viewing I was a bit surprised that she was lying there was a mouth partly open and you could see her teeth and I said to him well why are you showing her teeth oh she had such nice teeth and then a friend of the family was right there and she said but that's not the usual way that a you know the funeral director presents the face he said all she had nice teeth and then said to my friend unlike yours and I can tell your age by your teeth you know and because I used to I used to be able to work out the age of sheep none of these experiences compare with what happened to the family of Michelle Appleton in 2015 the Melbourne mother was dying of cancer [Music] Michelle was planning her death and the way she wanted to look I know it might sound funny but she went to a lot of trouble she picked several outfits and I think it was her way of getting us adjusted to maybe not having her around and she'd present the outfits and and she'd ask what do you think would be best with the shoes these or these she wanted a certain pursues that I had to go and find for her in a certain dress her nails done which we had organized and her hair and makeup fixed properly because she was only 42 when she died Michelle Appleton had engaged and Gibson's company to do her funeral I do remember about five days I think before she passed she was so proud of herself that she'd or I've done it an ebow I've fine I finalized everything I've got the funeral directors I've put down exactly how I want everything done I've paid them the last things have done they told her that they ran women only kind of like the other companies that do ladies only services for other ladies and they convinced her that there would be females there to pick up and prepare her body which was what she wanted after she died from the moment Michelle died there were problems it was late at night and a man showed up in a van and said I'm here to collect her body and I said well who are you it was organized to be females only to collect Oh any ghosts Oh me missus is in the car and I said ho who's collecting her we wanted females only Neos well it's me it's two o'clock in the morning this is all you get her up she's not being picked up Nicole was upset but let them take her mother's body then things got worse we plan to have a viewing because some of the family wanted to see her before she was cremated I rang and asked for that and he said that her body was too bad to be viewed and we were all in the room when she died she had had a stroke caused from the cancer spreading to our brain and just didn't wake up so there was no real bad anything she just looked normal yes she looked a little bit sick but it wasn't anything horrific that shouldn't have been able to be viewed so straight away I've realized there's obviously something wrong as to why he's saying no to a viewing Nicole changed funeral directors and they picked up Michelle's body from Ian Gibson Nicole was horrified when she looked in the coffin it was quite obvious that the coffin that Michelle was placed in was not the correct coffin for her dimensions at that stage her dress was draped over her so she wasn't dressed in her dress and otherwise I'm not a qualified in Barmes so I can't make comments on the preparation of Michelle thank you but I do know that Nicole was very upset when she saw her mother she was jammed into a coffin that was way too small her shoulders were pretty much up it's just not a normal position at all and her clothes were just thrown on top of her her shoes weren't on her her hair was a mess she had saliva all down the side of her face her eyes were black and sunken in there was just so much stuff not right and that didn't look anything like what she looked like we've seen photos of Michelle Appleton's body clearly in a coffin that's far too small for her do you deny that that happened now the coffin coffin would would fit in there easy the mother or Michelle she was no bigger than me and a stain a coffin was the appropriate size but I mean we've seen the photos her shoulders are jammed up near her ears she's clearly squeezed into alpha a small place--a wasn't that being it wasn't that small no it was pretty reprehensible and he shouldn't be operating if you're not going to treat loved ones with respect engage and be operating and that's the problem in this industry and not enough people I held responsible for their actions after Nicole switched funeral directors and complained on social media Ian Gibson claimed he'd been defamed were you happy with everything that he tried to stop the cremation from going ahead by seeking a court injunction saying he needed the body as evidence one of the most important parts of this whole story is that here was a family suffering and then he was prepared to still take them to court because she lashed out at him and for what he did after that was what I considered totally unprofessional Christian Maxwell is the CEO of the company that took over Michelle's funeral does it worry you that is still allowed to operate of course of course because you know for every bad funeral operator it takes away from the fact that they're a good funeral place and the people who do care and do want to who have passion for the industry how is what Anne Gibson's done impacted you and your family I'd understand how many key feels and there's no reason for her to feel she's failed her mom but she does and that is not fair and that's not right and that shouldn't be a lot anybody this Apple and story is just I don't know where you've gone back that far and this was this father Albert one I says little don't know I don't know whose why tanning me for you to get their names of these people we if where you found them out from it so you've done a bit of digging with or somebody is putting the slipper under me so end of story why would there be so two people who have got complaints about you why would there be three or four different people who've completely made this up nothing more to say interview terminated in serious done so you have nothing to say I'm sighs I'm not going to into this anymore I've been set up for you guys not interested no we're just putting to you the complaints that have been made yeah and they're all been done and dusted with and and you're just gonna bring them up in front of everybody to get yourself a story and my name's gonna be on the television and taint it so forget totally disappointed totally disappointed ease to Buddha as a mortuary transport driver in Victoria Danny Hughes sees another dark side of this industry how bodies are moved around one of the things I don't like is most public hospitals lot of nursing homes will bring the body out through the back door where all the trash and the rubbish inwards and outwards goods is instead of through the front door I don't think it's dignified [Music] some nursing homes and hospitals have arrangements with large funeral companies to pick up bodies within hours of a death in some cases the family will have already hired a different funeral home we many times contain up at a hospital and we'll find the bodies not there the body has already been released to a large funeral company and they're in possession of the body and I'm aware of dozens and dozens of instances where the family haven't been aware that their loved one has been moved some in the industry say this puts pressure on the family to go with the funeral home that's picked up the body the family find out that their loved one their mum or dad or brother or sister has gone to a funeral director and the practices that that funeral director will then ring the family and the family feel obligated to go in and sit down on a range of funeral and what that does to the family is it does not give them the opportunity to consider their options in the drive for profits some companies transport bodies interstate for cremations this van is leaving Tobin brothers mortuary in Melbourne with five bodies bound for New South Wales where the company owns its own crematorium I have concerns about bodies being transported into state for cremation only because it's the funeral director trying to avoid the fact that particularly in Victoria because all cemeteries and crematoria are run by trusts there is no profit available to the funeral director whereas if they go over their border into New South Wales they can make a bit of profit out of the symmetry out of the cremation fee as well how many bodies would you take at one time I times they can be they could be one they can be two they can be three bodies they're transferred to bury belly would three be the maximum in event now they can get it can take approximately four can take costs per group depending on the size of the coffins it could take up to five do you tell customers that their loved one could be going with potentially four other people in a van up the highway over the border it's not something that we we don't disclose do you explicitly tell them that the crematorium is in New South Wales is over the border yes oh all of our one because it's we need to fill out New South Wales health and Health paperwork which the client family needs to sign off on and and yes it is infested that it's um that it's on the Murray River over the border they say that they do tell families when they sit down with them and get them to sign the paperwork is that too late I think from in my view it is because once you're sitting down and doing that paperwork you're probably committed to that funeral director and as I said all can all funeral consumers of funeral products are vulnerable and at that point in time you you know if anyone that's experienced this would know you just want to get it done James McLeod says his staff weren't happy with the service provided by Victoria's state-run crematoriums so the company started taking bodies to New South Wales to its own facility it is a profit center of Tomah brothers but it's also important to us that we maintain the care of the decision their care because when we hand it over to a third party we don't know what the training is what their expertise are etc the fact that companies are trying to penny bench by taking bodies outside Victoria for cremation is ridiculous you're taking someone's loved one you're driving them you know in some instances 300 kilometres in a van where they're shaking around and moving around when you know there's perfect facilities here in Victoria that could cope with that and in a way it should be illegal so how did that Repat car it's fantastic take during anniversary Cristian Maxwell heads up zolly a company that owns multiple funeral brands across Victoria and New South Wales he sees no need to move bodies across state borders do you think if these funeral companies are being transparent and telling their clients that they're taking their loved one to a different state for a cheaper cremation is it okay I still think not because at the end of the day these people aren't meat they can't just be shipped around because it's convenient [Music] an extreme case of shunting bodies around the country for profit happened here in Queensland south of Brisbane between 2009 and 2011 59 bodies were driven 600 kilometres to rockhampton for cremation without the knowledge of the families the man who did this is funeral director Anthony James [Music] Anthony we just want to ask you a few questions [Music] why won't you answer questions there's been a lot of criticism from within the industry about you why won't you answer questions despite the grave concerns of the industry Anthony James has been given permission to open a crematorium in this building in Bethea Nia South of Queensland's capital I'm sometimes horrified by some of the things I come across in the funeral industry the case of Anthony James in Queensland who wanted to open a cremation facility caused a lot of angst to the professional associations the Australian cemeteries in Crematory Association the funeral directors New South Wales the National Funeral Directors Association four corners approached Anthony James at his funeral home for comment unfortunately the council there got back to us and said well Andy Vox we have to take is whether the facilities made standards is nothing about the ethical behavior of the person that we can deal with that state government and although the local federal member was pushing hard the state government's response was it doesn't seem to be a great concern we'll let it go through I think the whole industry the ethical part of the industry is a bit horrified that governments have that little interest this mortuary van is carrying a body that's due to be cremated in New South Wales before this can happen the dead person has to be viewed by a doctor who can verify their identity the cremation paper unfortunately states that I am satisfied as to the identity of the body and I have viewed the body now this creates a problem where we then here have to transport the person to the doctor's surgery for identification in this case the GPS practice is in a shopping mall the funeral attendant takes the doctor to where the van is parked in the loading bay he opens the body bag and the doctor confirms the identity today we filmed a doctor walking into a loading dock to identify a body and there were people loading up fruit and vegetables there were forklifts and shoppers going by is that acceptable no I think it's disgraceful we've got one doctor who's next to a fish and chip shop it's ludicrous it's disrespectful it's humiliating and I know our staff are horrified every time they have to do it and it's just morally wrong and it shouldn't happen Michael McCoy is the head of the New South Wales Funeral Directors Association he says he's been lobbying the government for 15 years to change the form to bring it in line with other states and end this undignified practice imagine what older people would think if they walked past a van with the body in it and a doctor standing there it's horrifying for them it is that whole scenario is totally wrong after being approached by four corners the New South Wales Health Department says it is reviewing the cremation certification requirements I really feel sorry for the doctors that are involved in all of this it's something that they honestly don't want to do and they're doing it because the law or New South Wales health are saying you must do this losing a loved one is difficult at the best of times but a bad experience with a funeral director can make it so much worse grieving families often become vulnerable consumers and many think it's time for change look it's not a very nice industry to be we're always at the grieving end but I think it's the more open and more honest we are with everybody I think the better it'll be for everyone I question how our government has not got some sort of organized legislation to this we put in a trust and faith in people that are looking after our loved one and the fact that they can get away with all this I don't understand it if at any stage you doubt or you think it just doesn't feel right you intuitions normally always right if it doesn't feel right from the beginning it's certainly not going to feel right at the end [Music] you you

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 2,379,888

Rating: 4.6582966 out of 5

Keywords: news, abc, abc news, australia, funeral, funeral director, funeral service, corpse, dead body, embalmer, four corners, stephanie march, invocare, tobin brothers, cremation, crematorium

Id: rZ_fbq0xB2I

Length: 43min 2sec (2582 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/averagejoereddit50]

Check out the old book "The American Way of Death" by Jessica Mitford. This may sound like clickbait, but really, "FUNERAL DIRECTORS HATE HER!"

[u/YOUREABOT]

I want to have a green burial and a home funeral. No need to be cared for by a business.