Ange Kenos, civil celebrant, asks the ACCC why they ignore the "big fish" yet go after pensioner Dally Messenger III
ACCC and Messenger: Table of Contents
Sent to the Australian Financial Review
August 14, 2007
From Ange Kenos - Civil Celebrant
Dear Editor
I am thoroughly appalled at the behaviour of the ACCC and its poor excuse for a leader in Graeme Samuel. To consistently fail to act against petrol companies setting prices and yet to target a pensioner simply amazes me.
Dally Messenger is an honest and decent man who wanted civil funeral celebrants to receive a little more for the extreme effort that they put into funeral ceremonies. Funeral companies charge from $6000 to $12000 but funeral celebrants are lucky to get from $150 to $350
Mr Messenger tried to get some more for his colleagues but never ever set a minimum fee, never demanded any set fee. Yet this aged pensioner has been slammed in the face by a fine of offensive proportions and legal fees to boot.
Will the ACCC now go after the AMA which openly sets fees for its members? Will it attack media proprietors who set their fees? Will Samuel go after the plumbers, electricians and other tradesmen who set their fees? Or his fellow lawyers, especially the QCs? After all, they set fees and at a very high level as we have seen time and time again through parliamentary inquiries.
Or was Samuel simply attacking Civil Celebrants because of some bias he has, or his failure to understand how hard they work for so little remuneration. I do not know the full details of this trial but the fact that it went to court is a travesty of justice and a mockery of the Australian value of a fair go.
Mr Samuel needs to explain to the people of Australia why he went after this elderly gentlemen when he consistently fails to go after much bigger fish that reap far larger sums of money from hapless members of the community.
He needs to explain why he has ignored so many others and targeted this one man. And he should let us all know how much this case has cost the taxpayer since we have a right to know how our hard earned money is being wasted.
Ange Kenos JP
Civil Celebrant
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