When it comes time to hang up the gumboots
With the average age of New Zealand farmers pushing 60, and land values on a steady increase, it’s no surprise succession planning is currently top-of-mind for the agricultural industry.
The commission last week reviewed the Burial and Cremation Act.
The report recommends substantial changes to New Zealand's burial and cremation laws to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse society.
The commissioner who led the review, Wayne Mapp, said it was recommending that owners of private rural properties be able to apply to their local council for burial on their land.
Mapp said councils should be required to consider the applications and would have the power to decline if it appeared the owners or managers of the farm were unable to maintain the land for a long time.
He said if the land was on-sold, an arrangement would need to be made for the family to visit the grave site.
"You'd expect them to have that ability. The site itself would have to be noted in the title and you'd expect people would be able to visit it."
The Government has six months to respond to the review, which also recommends modernising how deaths are certified and making it easier to open privately run crematoria.
