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Australian Financial Review
Friday March 30 2007 by
Chanticleer John Durie p.92
Dally Messenger, grandson of the Australian rugby league legend of the same name, has found himself on the other side of a fight with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over allegedly trying to organise prices for funeral celebrants.
The case, scheduled for a directions hearing next month, centres on allegations he tried to organise civil celebrants to collectively jack up fees.
That's the ACCC case, but Messenger says the facts are 180 degrees opposite when, according to him, the funeral directors already dictate prices and all he is trying to do is get a bit of competition into the industry.
As a rough guide, in Victoria if you want a civil celebrant for a marriage, it will cost you circa $770 and if you want one for a funeral it will cost you about $400.
Messenger says the latter is a fixed fee and if you want to use a member of the church for the job, it will cost you $180.
From the above, it can be seen it is more lucrative to be a wedding celebrant than a funeral celebrant, particularly if Messenger is right and the industry dictates the charges.
At a conference in September 2005, Messenger raised the concept that maybe the celebrants ought to gang up against the industry, but the ACCC, according to a release yesterday, disputes his claim and backs the industry against the little guy.
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