Daniel Chrisp: Cemeteries and Crematoria Collective Chair on the concern cemeteries are running out of space

There’s concern our cemeteries are running out of space, with some councils taking too long to secure new land. 

The Cemeteries and Crematoria Collective says many graveyards are already at or near capacity, forcing delays and limiting burial options. 

It warns too many councils are failing to plan far enough ahead, and many are excluding cemeteries from urban growth strategies that often focus narrowly on housing. 

Collective Chair Daniel Chrisp told Andrew Dickens that while 70-75% of New Zealanders prefer cremation now, there are still many communities and cultures that prefer burial.  

He says the option needs to be provided, so councils need to think strategically and proactively about it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a story we should have done on Friday when
it was Halloween. Apparently we're running out of room to
bury the dead. The New Zealand Cemeteries and Crematoria Collective
says Auckland and other regions are nearly a capacity, urging
councils to snap up land and they plan strategically for
local semmetry spaces. So Daniel Crisp is the chair of

(00:20):
the New Zealand Cemeteries and Crematoria Collective and joins me, Now,
good morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
You, Daniel, Good morning Andrew. How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I'm good. Just how close are we to being full?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, like you say, there are a few regions which
are nearly there. Unfortunately, so maybe five years or less
or less left of space, so you know that's not ideal.
You know, we're trying to urge councils to plan proactively.
When they've got about ten years left, they should be
starting to consider it because it takes quite a while
to quietly.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Yeah, how did they do it? How do you make
a cemetery?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yes, that's the Public Works Act, which we know is
getting a few tweaks at the moment, so hopefully that
might help a little bit as well. But yeah, it's
a public works Act. Under the Burial Cremation Act, all
councils are required to provide burial space, so there's a
couple of legislative ways to do it. And then yeah,
it's got to go through that process, which can take
several years.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
And New Zealand is still preferring to be buried rather
than cremated.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Various from city to city based on demographics. Generally speaking,
New Zealanders around to seventy five percent cremation now, but
there are still a lot of communities and cultures which
still prefer burial, which is fine. You know, I don't
think we're ever going to get to the point where
we're going to star outlawing burial. That would just be ridiculous.

(01:41):
So we need to provide these options. So councils need
to think strategically and proactively about this thing.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
All right. And this is a bit dark as well.
If you've ever been to Paris, of course you go
to the catacombs and that's quite remarkable, and that is
basically everybody from a cemetery who were then stored in
a mine. So they have more room for the city
and for more cemetery and for more people. So will
we ever get to that state where we might actually
disinter people and put them elsewhere to make more space.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, Look, there's a lot of other countries do that,
and so it's a thing called limited tenure plots. It
is something we're trying to start the conversation on. It's
very foreign to New Zealanders. We're pretty used to having
our plot forever. But clearly that's not going to be
an option forever to just keep something plots forever. We

(02:30):
need to look at these other options as well.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
So, yeah, exactly, your call is we need more symmetries
and we should have started thinking about it five years ago.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah. Look, a lot of the councils that are in
this predicament right now, it's not their fault. It's the
fault of senior management or chief executives or councils five
to ten years ago. And now they're stuck with the
really crappy situation of running out of space. So I
do feel for them. It is a complex thing to
try and find land. But yeah, we're urging councils to

(02:59):
pur now so in another five or ten years time,
they're not in a similar situation.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Hey Daniel, thank you so much for your time. That's
Daniel Crisp, who is the chair of the New Zealand
Cemetery's and Crematoria Collective.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
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