Millions and billions of dollars? Royal commission hearings have copped tales of that.

But this week, we heard how deductions and fees costing just a few dollars are taking food out of the mouths of some of Australia's most vulnerable people.

Take the Aboriginal Community Benefit Fund (ACBF). With that name, you'd understandably think it's Aboriginal and somehow linked to the community. No.

It's a private Gold Coast-based company, and chief executive Bryn Jones had no qualifications, no background in insurance and was a sports coach before taking on his role.

ACBF provides funeral insurance, and the evidence presented at the commission's hearings in Darwin was that it preys upon the immense cultural importance Indigenous communities place on funerals and practices around death.

Financial Counselling Australia's Lynda Edwards explained why the costs for funerals in the Indigenous community can be so high, and why insurance is so valued that people will go without food to make their payments.

Senior counsel assisting the commission Rowena Orr QC grills a witness in Darwin. ( Supplied: royal commission )

"Families would travel to the community where the funeral is being held and the hosting family would be responsible for feeding the family," she said.

"So that could possibly mean that there are 20 more people that live in the home, that stay in the home, for the length of time.

"And in some remote communities the grieving process, because all of the community grieve together, could be weeks rather than just days in a traditional Western society."

Tracey Walsh took up the insurance in 2005, drawn by an ACBF poster in her workplace, with an image of the Rainbow Serpent surrounding an Aboriginal family.

Even as her premiums doubled because of the company's arbitrary determination about her health (she was using anti-depressant pills, so they capped her benefit) she continued to make payments.

A certificate from the company arrived in 2008, to "acknowledge [Ms Walsh has] attained their chosen benefit amount of $8000".

"What did you think would happen if you paid more than $8000 before you died?" senior counsel assisting Rowena Orr QC asked her. "That it would go to my family," she replied.

It wouldn't. Nothing like it. In fact it's unlikely her family would even get $8,000, because the payments only cover direct expenses of a funeral, like a casket. The broader costs of "sorry business", outlined by Ms Edwards, aren't covered.

ACBF customer Tracey Walsh said elders paid into the fund for years. ( Supplied )

Ms Walsh was livid. In one of the most emotional scenes at the royal commission so far, she went on a tear, ripping into the company in front of its chief executive and lawyers.

"By God, when people find out about this in my community, they're going to be angry. They're going to be scared," she said.

"These people have been used and used and used over the generations and it's just another profit-making off our backs."

Many customers have lost out. ACBF was the only funeral insurance company allowed to direct debit premiums from welfare payments by system CentrePay, but it was stopped by the federal government in 2015.

Unable to deduct payments, it cancelled the policies of 6,000 people for non-payment. Most would lose everything they'd contributed. Mr Jones told the hearing the company cancelled the policies because they could not contact the 6,000 clients.

Ms Orr: "You didn't lose these customers due to CentrePay did you?" Mr Jones: "They were paying via CentrePay." Ms Orr: "Yes, what you lost was the ability to charge these customers who you had already lost." Mr Jones: "Yes, but I daresay a large majority of those people are still unaware they're not covered." Mr Orr: "They may have been unaware that they were covered in the period when you were deducting payments from their Centrelink benefits." Mr Jones: "That may also be the case, yes."

The grilling of Mr Jones was extensive. But outside court, his nonchalance in brushing off questions was understandable.

Kathy Marika said she was pushed into a policy she did not want. ( ABC News )

The company has been taken through the courts by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and avoided implementing recommendations from the regulator.

Also, it was revealed in the hearings, it breached Federal Court orders to tell customers it is not connected with or sponsored by government or Aboriginal organisations.

Funeral insurance is no small matter.

Palm Island, off Queensland's coast, has almost 2,500 residents — the vast majority identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.

The Commonwealth Bank analysed the spending of its 897 customers, detailing the top 20 most common direct debits.

Two — including the most common — were linked to ACBF for funeral insurance plans. Four more were life insurers, six more were payday lenders.

Let's Insure provides a similar service. Listening to recordings of call centre staff badgering Aboriginal woman Kathy Marika into buying funeral insurance — despite her telling five different staff she was covered via her employer Bangarra Dance Theatre — was so excruciating I had my hands covering my face.

The call centre staff were incentivised with Vespa scooters, cruises and a Las Vegas holiday. The company's boss Russell Howden was forced to agree with Commissioner Kenneth Hayne that — according to internal notes — call centre staff could breach the corporations act by giving personal financial advice or make unethical sales three times and not accrue enough demerit points to be dismissed.

Any demerit points expired every six weeks.

Predatory practices, exploitation

Darwin is one of most beautiful and interesting cities in Australia.

It's undeniably more relaxed: Peak Hour is more like minutes, people have knock-off beers seemingly daily, and the tropic warmth makes your formality wilt. The legal teams stood out in their suits and ties. I ditched mine after a day.

But it's isolated and expensive to get to. Only ABC, Sky News, the Australian Financial Review and The Australian sent reporters, with some publications using wire copy. When I booked it was cheaper for me to go to Colombo or Los Angeles, return, than Darwin.

Similarly, the experiences of people living in remote communities are hard to bring out.

None of the evidence shocked locals. Any outrageous example from the commission — like an unscrupulous car dealer taking a tray-truck full of poor quality "lemon" cars into areas affected by Cyclone Yasi, to reap disaster relief cheques — would be countered with a worse one they knew.

We'd expected to hear about some low behaviour when the commission turned to examining financial institutions' interactions with Indigenous Australia.

Even with that preparation, the predatory practices and exploitation exposed were galling.