Mason Lee was failed: How could so many get it so wrong?

It’s no secret that little Mason Jet Lee was failed by his mum and stepfather – he endured more suffering in his short time on Earth than most people would experience in a lifetime. But we’ve now learnt that 21 more people directly failed Mason. And that’s not good enough, writes Vanessa Marsh.

IT’S no secret that little Mason Jet Lee was failed by his mum and stepfather – he endured more pain, suffering and neglect in his short time on Earth than most people would experience in a lifetime.

But yesterday we learnt that 21 more people directly failed Mason.

Audio recording pinpoints moment of Mason Lee’s horrific fatal blow

Safety officers checked on Mason Lee once when he should have been seen 12 times

Coroner lists ‘blatant failures’ in Child Safety’s handing of Mason Lee case

One person for each month of his short and tragic life. The Deputy Coroner Jane Bentley found the Department of Child Safety and 21 of its employees had failed Mason in “nearly every way possible”.

The dot-point list of failings makes for gut-wrenching reading and begs the question – how could so many people get it so wrong in so many ways?

Mason Lee.

Yesterday, Child Safety Minister Di Farmer stood before the media and declared that three reviews costing a total of $200 million had led the department to adopt 16 changes to address the issues that led to Mason’s death.

But clearly those changes don’t go far enough when other children are still dying and boys like the pair found at Stafford last month are being discovered in squalid conditions.

The Courier-Mail understands both of those families were known to Child Safety.

Not a single one of those 21 people who stood by and let Mason die were sacked. Three left their positions of their own volition and nine were merely reprimanded.

“Our Child Safety officers are faced with the depths of ­depravity every single day and they work their hardest to make sure they are keeping kids from harm,” the minister declared.

But clearly in Mason’s case, that could not be further from the truth.

There is no doubt that staff employed by the Department of Child Safety have a difficult job to do.

However, when the difference between a job well done is life and death, repeated failures such as the ones in little Mason’s case are unacceptable and the punishment for staff who don’t meet those expectations needs to reflect that.