A nation’s dignity is measured by how it buries its poorest.

There are truths about a society that reveal themselves not in its grandest monuments but in its smallest gestures of care—in whether the dead are remembered, in whether the living are told, in whether dignity is treated as a right or a privilege. This week, an investigation by Guardian Australia brought to light a practice that had been occurring quietly for years: the burial of impoverished Australians in unmarked communal graves, sometimes without their families ever being informed.

The investigation identified more than 100 unmarked graves across New South Wales and some in Queensland, used by state governments to bury those deemed unable to afford their own funerals. At Rookwood cemetery in western Sydney, plots often hold four to six unrelated people. Among them were Vietnam veterans, rough sleepers, people with gambling addictions, and migrants from developing countries whose families could not afford repatriation costs. In the first half of this year alone, more than 40 people were buried along a 17-metre stretch of earth beside a dirt path, with nothing to mark the graves.

In at least six cases, authorities failed to contact friends, family, or support workers—failures that appear to breach NSW Health’s own policy, which requires efforts to identify anyone willing to pay for a funeral and to avoid “causing unnecessary distress”. Chantel Dubsky learned only through the investigation that her brother, Roger Davies, a rough sleeper, had been buried in an unmarked grave with four strangers. “He wasn’t just someone off the street—he was someone’s son, he was someone’s brother,” she said.

The revelations prompted widespread political condemnation. NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said he had not been aware of how the graves were being used and described past failings as “unacceptable”. He has tasked his department with exploring reforms, including Victoria’s model, where individuals receive their own plot and marker at a cost of about $3,000 per funeral. NSW Health has apologised, acknowledging that those without financial means have not always been treated with the dignity they deserve.

Independent Senator David Pocock urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to raise the issue at National Cabinet and seek a uniform agreement across states and territories. “Being poor in a country as wealthy as Australia should not condemn you to an unmarked communal grave,” he said. Shadow Defence Personnel Minister Phillip Thompson described the burial of veterans in communal graves as “deeply concerning”.

The question now is whether the outrage translates into change. NSW has committed to an urgent review. Whether that review leads to a system where every person, regardless of means, is laid to rest with dignity and their loved ones are given the chance to say goodbye—that remains to be seen.

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Sources: The Guardian, CathNews, OZ Arab Media, Dissenter Trends