Daniel Wills: After the catastrophes of Families SA and Oakden, Ann Marie Smith has to be the final wake-up call

Ann Marie Smith’s “degrading” death isn’t the first time we failed the vulnerable. With a familiar and pathetic secrecy already kicking in, it won’t be the last, writes political editor Daniel Wills.

• Minister tight-lipped over checks on Ann Marie Smith
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If societies are to be measured by how they treat the most vulnerable, the tragic and degrading case of Ann Marie Smith shames us all.

Two weeks ago, police revealed shocking allegations about the final days of the 54-year-old Kensington Park woman, who died of septic shock and multiple organ failure from severe pressure sores.

Detective Superintendent Des Bray said her conditions, which included being confined for a year to cane chair that also became a toilet, were “disgusting and degrading”.

In the days since the cause for sadness, and anger, has only grown.

A manslaughter investigation has been launched into Ann Marie Smith’s death.

With so much still unknown about how such a thing could be allowed to happen – behind closed doors and in an up-market eastern suburb – one thing has become very clear: Government systems meant to help this vulnerable woman failed catastrophically, and even the unconscionable horrors of Oakden and Families SA apparently haven’t been enough to shake bureaucracies out of their slumber.

In all of these cases, government negligence was the enabler. In all of these cases, there have been sober and regretful promises that they must never happen again. In all of these cases, we come to the sad conclusion that it can’t be assumed people who have been put in charge of looking after the vulnerable are doing the right thing. While there has to be a degree of trust, governments must constantly verify.

The Oakden and Families SA disasters were born in a culture of secrecy that was fostered over a long time within the State Government of the day.

The inquiries that followed, including a royal commission and Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation, found that there were good people who raised the alarm at suspected abuse.

But they were ignored, and the abuse continued uninterrupted

In the hideous story of monster paedophile and Families SA carer Shannon McCoole, colleagues noticed that something was not right.

Superiors shut them down and ministers were either deliberately kept in the dark or too incurious to ask the right questions.

Oakden became a dumping ground for workers no one else wanted. The system of oversight was sometimes completely absent and always inadequate.

If the concerned family of residents had not blown the whistle and gone to the media, who knows how long the hidden suffering at Oakden would have continued. There are now police investigations and a coronial inquest under way into how Ann Marie Smith was left to suffer such an undeserving and undignified end to her life.

One hopes, against the historical evidence, they will spark change.

But it’s already clear that her suffering could have been avoided if people cared and were curious enough. That really is unforgivable.

SA Human Services Minister Michelle Lensink has jaw-droppingly confirmed Ms Smith’s carer did not get a disability services employment clearance since it became law in 2014. The carer only sought a working with vulnerable people clearance in the days after Ms Smith’s death.

How someone working in such a sensitive area could go six years without the paperwork is unfathomable. It’s a period of time that crosses countless ministers and premiers from both sides of the political aisle

But there is already political buck-passing and secrecy emerging in reaction to Ms Smith’s case.

NDIS minister Stuart Robert has not said how often carers checked on Ann Marie Smith before her death. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

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And it’s depressingly familiar.

The disability sector has been through massive changes in the past couple of years, with the transition to the NDIS. Some state functions have moved to the federal sphere, and that has raised ambiguity about who is responsible for what. That is exactly the kind of Kafkaesque nightmare where vulnerable people slip through the cracks.

Premier Steven Marshall has launched a taskforce into the case, led by the unimpeachably credentialed former Dignity Party MP Kelly Vincent.

The NDIS also has its own inquiry under way.

But federal NDIS Minister Stuart Robert has shown a lack of urgency and transparency that makes you worry this neglect is simply destined to happen again.

Asked this week about who had been watching the carer, he used the pathetic excuse that he couldn’t say much while police were investigating.

With an inadequate consolation that people had been “checking in” on Ms Smith’s welfare, he refused to say how often.

So, we’re left saying what we always do: It’s tragic, it’s terrible, it’s infuriating, it’s sad. Just more inadequate words to follow all the ink that’s already been spilt into a reservoir which seems to have infinite capacity.