In the far north of Queensland, a sea breeze blows through Yarrabah, a former mission, which now hosts nearly 3,000 First Nations Australians.
Allenby Ambrym has spent his entire life here.
Key points:
- Funeral insurers Youpla went into liquidation in March this year
- New data shows Moree residents paid more than $ 2 million to the company
- Advocates say most Yarrabah homes had a policy
“Yarrabah is a beautiful place, and in the past we didn’t really care much about money,” he said.
“We used to go hunting, drag a net, catch prawns on the beach and all the fish around and camp.
“It all went off. I think the government kept changing its ways … and we found a job and tried to keep it for a long time, keeping the family safe.”
For years, part of his family’s care involved that Mr. Ambrym left some money every fortnight to pay for his funeral.
Yarrabah, in the far north of Queensland, has a population of almost 3,000. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)
In March, the company to which you made these payments, Youpla, formerly known as the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF), went into liquidation.
Some 14,500 First Nations Australians were left without coverage.
New data reveals that some of Australia’s most disadvantaged communities have been pouring millions of dollars into Youpla for three decades.
According to figures released by liquidators SV Partners to financial advisers Mob Strong Debt Help, Mr. Ambrym is one of more than 760 people in Yarrabah who had a policy with the company.
“I got angry, very angry. Why did they come here … we’re just the people who fight like everyone else,” he said.
The data show that Yarrabah, a city with a population of just under 3,000 people according to the last census, contributed at least $ 1.7 million to ACBF / Youpla over the years.
“I would be surprised if you could walk down a Yarrabah street and find a house that has not been affected by the collapse of the ACBF,” said Mob Strong Debt Help financial adviser Bettina Cooper.
The city is listed as the seventh most disadvantaged postal code in the country.
“They were already one of the lowest socioeconomic areas,” Ms. Cooper said.
“The fact that they now have to pay for family funerals will lead to more intergenerational debt.
“It will put them further back, not to close the gap, but to widen it.
“It will create an obstacle that will cause them to enter poorly regulated credit products and increase financial damage in this community and will certainly keep them as one of the lowest socio-economic areas.”
According to the data, Yarrabah is one of 18 cities that have contributed more than $ 500,000 to the company over the years.
These cities include four of Australia’s 10 most disadvantaged places: Yarrabah, Woorabinda, Cherbourg and Palm Island.
For years, Jan Harris has been setting aside money to help his family one day pay for his funeral. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)
Gunggandji woman Jan Harris, who works for a health organization in Yarrabah, said she had been putting money into the fund for years.
“He was a little young when they came and made us sign these papers, and pretending they thought they were one of us,” he said.
When consumer groups held meetings in the city to talk about the company’s liquidation, Ms. Harris felt too excited to attend.
“It was like a shock,” he said.
“All our money just went down. They went down the drain.”
“The government was aware”
Gomeroi’s wife, Gwen Newman, is one of hundreds of people in the town of Moree in New South Wales who have been paying the company for decades.
“An Aboriginal woman came and said, ‘Would you like to join a funeral fund?’ And I said “yes,” because I wasn’t in any, ”Ms. Newman said.
“Since I was an aboriginal, I guess, you put your trust in it and you think it’s really a funeral fund … I’ve been paying for it ever since.”
Over the years, Moree’s people, including Ms. Newman, have paid more than $ 2.2 million to the fund, more than anywhere else in the country.
Gwen Newman, photographed with her grandson, is worried that future generations will have to pay for the funerals of their grandparents. (ABC News: Merri-May Gill)
One hundred and sixty-eight people in Moree have been paying since before 2005, when two of the funds were barred from joining new customers after a court ruled the ACBF had violated street vending laws. .
The lawsuit, filed by ASIC, was just one of a series of regulatory crackdowns against the company during its 30-year history.
Since 2020, it has not been allowed to register new customers, after the government changed the license requirements after strong evidence from the royal commission in banking.
“The government was aware that there was a problem,” Ms Cooper said.
“They were taken to court, had the royal commission and prevented from selling the products.
“But they did nothing to put a protective fence around those already involved in the product.”
Ms Newman said she felt physically ill when she learned of the company’s fate.
“Many of the aborigines here in Moree joined,” he said.
“Everyone was talking about it when it went into liquidation and they were angry, and some of the old people got sick.
“He stressed them out and he stressed me out and made me sick.
“Now there is no funeral fund for anyone in the community.”
Before the company collapsed, ASIC initiated another lawsuit, accusing ACBF of misleading conduct between 2015 and 2018.
The court has yet to decide whether this action will continue now that the company is in liquidation.
There are even more victims
The data, which includes people who canceled their policies or died after 2017, shows that the communities of New South Wales and Queensland were the hardest hit by the company’s collapse.
“There are 10,000 people from Queensland on the current data,” Ms Cooper said.
“We know [there are] 8,000 in New South Wales at current data and we know they are 1,000 from Victoria.
Bettina Cooper has spent the past four months calling back more than 1,000 Youpla customers who called Mob Strong Debt Help for advice. (ABC News: Kirstie Wellauer)
“We know they are not all members of the ACBF. We know SV Partners is still trying to extract more data.”
SV Partners recently issued a statement saying it could apply for financial assistance from ASIC and NSW Fair Trading to recover some of the lost money.
“Instructions have been issued to our attorneys to provide advice regarding possible revocable transactions.
“Once the advice has been received, a funding application will be issued to ASIC and NSW, if applicable. [Fair Trading]. “
NSW Fair Trading said it had not yet received any reports or requests from liquidators.
The government has promised an investigation into what happened to Youpla, but has not given a timeline on when it will happen.
Meanwhile, Bettina Cooper says authorities need to step in and help families already suffering the consequences of the company’s collapse.
“Our government must give an immediate solution to the people who have passed,” he said.
“I have a client who has now taken on two additional jobs to pay for a family funeral because I didn’t expect that expense to happen.
“I need [the government] to support future generations so that intergenerational debt is not the only one left in the Aboriginal Community Benefits Fund. “