An insurer that provides funeral products to the Aboriginal community was attacked by MPs during parliamentary hearings last week.

The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics questioned executives from Youpla, which was heavily criticised during the Hayne royal commission under its previous name the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund.

CEO Bryn Jones told MPs the firm has since been through a change of ownership and is now 50% owned by Isaac Simon, who is himself an Aboriginal.

Mr Jones says the company has “listened and learned” in response to the Hayne findings, but Mr Simon incurred the wrath of MPs when he appeared to question whether the hearings had been fair.

“The royal commission…didn’t highlight the 186 pages of positive testimonials that were submitted in evidence,” Mr Simon said.

“The royal commission also didn’t highlight the fact that we don’t sell to children. The royal commission also didn’t highlight the work that has been undertaken to improve the organisation.”

Committee Chairman Tim Wilson said Hayne had been “pretty scathing”.

“The degree to which you’ve been torn apart leaves me wondering on what basis you can continue to operate as an organisation, to be frank,” he said.

And Deputy Chairman Andrew Leigh criticised the company’s apparent lack of remorse, saying: “Your approach is very different than every other witness that has come before us.

“Every other witness who has come before us that had adverse findings made against them by the royal commission has apologised and talked about how they were planning to do things better by their customers.

“You seem to be rejecting the royal commission’s findings, which I think would be pretty worrying for many of your members.”

Mr Jones invited MPs to visit Aboriginal communities and get first-hand feedback on Youpla products, to understand their value.

“You’re asking questions and you’re asking why we’re defending ourselves,” he said. “It’s because we believe wholeheartedly in what we are doing and the community that we are representing, and I’ll defend that until I’m blue in the face.”

Life insurers ClearView, AIA and TAL also appeared before the committee. They were quizzed on suicide exclusions and their response to COVID-19.

TAL was criticised for initially excluding some new customers at high risk from the virus – an announcement it later retracted.

“You got to the right point,” Dr Leigh said. “I’m just struggling to think what was going through your heads.

“It does seem to be one of those incidents that causes people to wonder whether life insurance is worth it in the first place. It does damage to the reputation of your industry.”