The establishment of the new entity,named OneCrown,to manage cemeteries that operate on Crown land will involve the termination of the Catholic Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust,which runs cemeteries at Rookwood,Liverpool and Kemps Creek.
Setting up OneCrown was recommended in an independent review,11th Hour,which forecast that existing cemeteries would run out of space for new burials in three to 12 years’ time.
It also found that existing cemetery trusts had unfunded liabilities of more than $300 million.
However,a Catholic Cemeteries Trust spokesman Tim Allerton said the trust planned to launch an injunction when a week-long stay on its termination ends.
“The NSW government has asked for an extension to provide them with a bit more time,so we’re just waiting on that,but we’re going to launch injunction proceedings in the next week or so,” Mr Allerton said.
“We believe the taxpayer is going to miss out on close to $500 million in tax deductions over the next 10 years that the trust can generate by being a charitable not-for-profit group.
“Muslim and Jewish communities are going to be big losers too because we have dedicated burial spaces for them in a time when space is hard to come by.”