Commission of Inquiry Tasmania: Mixed reaction of victim-survivors to Premier’s ministerial statement
The family of a child sexual abuse victim, abused by a doctor at the LGH, says the Commission of Inquiry report is a turning point for the state.
Tasmania
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The family of a child sexual abuse victim says the Commission of Inquiry report is a chance to reset the culture within state institutions.
Amanda Duncan, whose sister Zoe was raped by a doctor at the Launceston General Hospital when she was 11 and who died at age 28 in 2017, said she hoped the culture changed immediately because children could not wait.
“I look forward to seeing our government lead the way,” she said.
Her mother Anne Duncan said Tuesday marked “a new beginning”.
“This really is a watershed in Tasmanian history, that we can look back on in 100 years and say, this is where it changed.
“It comes down to the duty of care to each and every individual.”
But not all victim survivors were as hopeful about the final report into child sexual abuse in Tasmanian institutions, which was tabled in parliament on Tuesday.
“Empty words” is how one survivor described the Premier’s ministerial statement on the Commission of Inquiry’s report.
Tiffany Skeggs, who was sexually abused as a child by Launceston General Hospital nurse James Griffin, was one of about 60 people who were in the public gallery to listen to Premier Jeremy Rockliff’s speech to parliament on Tuesday.
She said she was disappointed in the government’s immediate response.
“To sit there for an hour and hear empty words that we’ve heard time and time again, and we still only hear phrases like “we will implement’ and ‘we will get to this’ as opposed to we have or we are sends a very clear message about how committed these people really are to enacting change,” Ms Skeggs said.
“The information isn’t new to them.
“They’ve had this information prior to the report, they’re the reason we needed this report.
“To be, still today, saying ‘we will’ is not enough.”
The government, she said was more enthusiastic about plans for a new stadium “but we haven’t seen any plans for safeguarding children”.
However, Sam Leishman who was sexually abused as a child said while he might be “at odds” with some other victim survivors he was left with “eternal optimism”.
“I think we’ve just lived through this terrible dark period and I’ve been a part of it but I live with so much hope,” he said.
“I think Tasmania has every opportunity to fix this problem.
“We can do things better.”
Katrina Munting, who was sexually abused by a teacher, said she found Mr Rockliff’s speech “powerful” but then she “got lost” in talk of promises and funding, which she described as a “pittance”.
She said there needed to be cultural change and perpetrators needed to know “they were the problem”.
“This is not just an issue for government departments – all organisations, all community members all need to be on the same page,” Ms Munting said.
“We have given so much of ourselves to this process, to a lot of detriment, for it not to make real change.”
Azra Beach, who was abused in out-of-home care, was upset that the Ashley Youth Detention Centre would not be closing soon and not enough was being done for at risk children.
“I feel very angry right now.
“I was left feeling disappointed and angry for every victim that has come from out-of-home care.”
Jack Davenport, a former Department of Communities employee, who gave evidence to the inquiry was “underwhelmed” and particularly disappointed on no date for Ashley’s closure.
“I think we got to 25 minutes before he (Premier) even mentioned Ashley and it’s probably the biggest issue that is on the minds of so many people right now,” he said.
Ben Felton was abused at the Launceston General Hospital was outraged that children were still at Ashley but perpetrators of child sexual abuse were not being held on remand.
He said Ashley should be bulldozed to the ground.
“It’s destroyed people’s lives,” he said,
“My perpetrator is walking around Tasmania today. That’s a loaded gun walking around the street.
“But you can chuck a 10-year old into a detention centre.”
Beyond Abuse founder and CEO Steve Fisher praised the government for being “trailblazers and leading the nation” on holding the inquiry but said it would take decades to change institutions.
“Give the government time to absorb it and then make plans, these recommendations are huge,” he said.
Beyond Abuse founder and CEO Steve Fisher praised the government for being “trailblazers and leading the nation” on holding the inquiry but said it would take decades to change institutions.
“Give the government time to absorb it and then make plans, these recommendations are huge,” he said.
“They’ve had this information prior to the report. They’re the reason we needed this report.
“To be still today saying ‘We will’ is not enough.”
However, Sam Leishman, who was sexually abused as a child, said while he might be “at odds” with some other victim survivors, he was left with “eternal optimism”.
“I think we’ve just lived through this terrible dark period and I’ve been a part of it but I live with so much hope,” he said.
“I think Tasmania has every opportunity to fix this problem.
“We can do things better.
“We can get to the point one day, the rest of the jurisdictions in this country look at Tasmania and think how do we fix this terrible problem?”
Shine Lawyers abuse law general manager Sheree Buchanan praised “the brave victim-survivors who lived through hell at these institutions”.
“Those who found the strength to come forward and tell their stories did so on behalf of the many who will carry the trauma of their abuse in silence, possibly for the rest of their lives,” she said.
“To survivors everywhere – keep coming forward, keep telling your stories and keep fighting for the justice you deserve.
“My message to the government is simple – the work has to start now.
“The path forward has been lit by an unimaginable amount of pain and trauma endured by the victim survivors failed by these institutions, it’s now incumbent on the government, and governments of the future, to walk that path.”
The road to justice: Timeline of the child sex abuse commission
It has been a three-year long journey between the announcement of the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings and the publishing of the final report and its recommendations.
Below, senior reporter Amber Wilson has revisited the key moments.
November 22, 2020
Following mounting pressure, then-Premier Peter Gutwein announces an independent inquiry will be held, the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings. It’s the state’s second-ever commission of inquiry – Tasmania’s equivalent of a royal commission – following the 2000 investigation into the 1991 shooting of Vietnam veteran Joe Gilewicz.
In the wake of the announcement, a number of current and former state government employees are stood down amid allegations of sexual abuse against children.
The costs of the inquiry are expected to exceed $10 million.
September 9, 2021
Then-Premier Peter Gutwein announces the scandal-plagued Ashley Youth Detention Centre will be closed down within three years.
It comes after he has a lengthy, private conversation with former Ashley staffer and whistleblower, Alysha.
Mr Gutwein says the centre will be replaced with two rehabilitation-focused facilities in the state’s north and south.
October 26, 2021
The commission of inquiry delivers its opening address in Hobart from president Marcia Neave, and counsel assisting Maree Norton.
Fears the inquiry will be a “toothless tiger” are laid to rest – with Ms Neave confirming their intentions are for perpetrators to be dealt with by the criminal justice system.
March 10, 2022
Senior cabinet ministers Elise Archer and Michael Ferguson audibly groan in parliament when a question from a victim-survivor of paedophile nurse James Geoffrey Griffin, Tiffany Skeggs, is raised.
In addition, Minister for Education Children and Youth Roger Jaensch is heard to call out “oh, come on”.
Ms Skeggs asks for an apology and says the two Ministers should resign.
Instead, then-Premier Peter Gutwein apologises to Ms Skeggs on behalf of the government – before the Ministers in question ultimately apologise later that month.
March 11, 2022
Then-Premier Peter Gutwein reveals he too was a victim of childhood sexual assault at the hands of a schoolteacher.
His revelation comes after ire is raised over the groans in parliament.
Mr Gutwein says he has great empathy with victim-survivors, and risked his own career in 2002 to cross the floor and in support a Greens push for a Commission of Inquiry into child abuse.
He was stripped of his shadow treasury, education and employment portfolios by then opposition leader Rene Hidding.
The Premier resigns just weeks later, on April 4.
May 2, 2022
The commission of inquiry holds its first public hearing in Hobart.
It comes after months of the commissioners trawling through more than 92,000 documents provided by the Tasmanian government.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff promises the government will “absolutely” commit to the commission’s recommendations.
“We are committed not only to righting past wrongs to ensure that our children, our young people, our vulnerable, are protected in Tasmania. We will leave no stone unturned,” he says.
June 27, 2022
The family of Zoe Duncan, an 11-year-old girl raped by a Launceston General Hospital doctor in 2001, finally receives an apology.
Zoe died in 2017, aged 28. She had refused to ever return to the hospital for her long-term health problems.
Her rape allegation was dismissed by some staff. The hospital took nine days to escalate the complaint to the Child Safety Service and did not report it at all to police.
July 1, 2022
Launceston General Hospital’s former chief executive Stephen Ayre collapses while giving evidence at the commission of inquiry.
The medical emergency comes in the midst of tense examination of Dr Ayre’s prior knowledge of Griffin.
Prior to the medical emergency, hospital nursing and midwifery director Sue McBeath tells the commission she had a conversation in February 2021 with Dr Ayre – who was CEO between 2004 and 2008 – about his prior knowledge of Griffin.
She said that conversation came in the wake of Camille Bianchi’s podcast The Nurse, which revealed Griffin’s identity in the media for the first time and the extent of his crimes.
Ms McBeath said Dr Ayre told her he’d been contacted by police when he was CEO but on advice of HR, “he was advised to let the police investigation take its course”.
Before he collapsed, Dr Ayre denied saying this, claiming he was as surprised by the allegations in the podcast as anyone else.
July 4, 2022
The head of the Child Safety Service also apologises to the Duncan family for dismissing Zoe’s rape allegation, and also for not referring the matter to police.
The agency says there was enough evidence to substantiate Zoe’s claims.
The Child Safety Service also apologises to victim-survivor Tiffany Skeggs for failing to protect her from serial predator James Griffin, given it was notified of the abuse as far back as 2013.
July 5, 2022
Health Department secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks tearfully apologises to victims of child sexual abuse at Launceston General Hospital.
It comes after a week of damning evidence concerning the hospital, and its failures and neglects of children sexually abused within its walls.
Ms Morgan-Wicks says she is “personally horrified by the lack of empathy, humanity” of those within her department and the Tasmania Health Service.
August 12, 2022
Paperwork for Tasmania’s first-ever class action is lodged in the Supreme Court.
More than 100 former Ashley Youth Detention Centre residents plan to sue the state government over the physical, sexual abuse, solitary confinement and “systemic negligence” they allegedly suffered while locked up at the troubled Deloraine facility.
September 13, 2022
The commission of inquiry wraps up its public hearings, after eight weeks of evidence from 165 witnesses.
In her closing address, counsel assisting the commission, Elizabeth Bennett SC, mentions some key names at the top of the chain and their knowledge of paedophiles within the system, and the possibility of “cover-ups”.
October 3, 2022
It is revealed Launceston General Hospital director Peter Renshaw will soon be leaving his role.
Dr Renshaw was chastised during the inquiry for showing an “astonishing lack of insight” by publicly proclaiming before the commission, and the family of the late Zoe Duncan, that he didn’t believe her claims of rape.
He recanted the following day after hearing Ms Duncan’s allegations had been re-evaluated by the Child Safety Service, which found on the balance of probabilities a rape had indeed occurred.
Dr Renshaw also admitted before the commission that he provided false information to the department secretary Kathrine Morgan-Wicks in November 2019 about Griffin – but denied he had lied.
November 8, 2022
Premier Jeremy Rockliff apologises to victims of child sexual abuse in government institutions, describing systemic failures as a “very dark chapter” in Tasmanian history.
“
We failed you, we are all accountable and we are sorry,” he tells parliament.
August 31, 2023
The commission of inquiry delivers its final report and recommendations to Governor Barbara Baker.
September 26, 2023
The commission’s final report is tabled in state parliament and released to the public.
What you need to know: Commission of Inquiry to table final report
The final report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings will be made public on Tuesday.
Premier Jeremy Rockliff will make a statement to parliament around 11.30am during a sitting expected to be attended by a larger number of victim-survivors and witnesses.
The report will be tabled – and made available online – about 12.30am.
Its eight volumes run to more than 3,000 pages and contains 75 findings and 191 recommendations.
Commission President Marcia Neave handed the Commission’s final report to Tasmanian Governor Barbara Baker on August 31.
Deputy Premier Michael Ferguson said the report’s release would be a historic moment for the state, as well as a difficult one for many of those affected by abuse.
“Obviously, it’s long awaited for people who are affected by the work of the Commission of Inquiry. It’s a really significant week in a significant time in their lives and in the lives of many Tasmanians,” he said.
“That report will be tabled tomorrow, the Premier importantly will provide a ministerial statement which will provide a response to the commission’s report, Tasmanians can be assured that we’re taking this as seriously as they do.”
Labor leader Rebecca White said the Commission’s recommendations must be implemented swiftly.
“It’s a significant day in our state’s history and it will be incredibly re-traumatising for many of those victim-survivors who gave evidence throughout the Commission of Inquiry process,” she said.
“What we need to see from the government tomorrow is a very clear statement not only of intent to implement the recommendations which they’ve already given, but a timeline and resourcing to make sure that can happen to keep children safe in our state.”
And Greens leader Rosalie Woodruff said the day would be a milestone for the state — particularly those who had fought long and hard for justice.
“Tomorrow’s a really momentous day for Tasmanians, especially for victims survivors and whistleblowers who have been fighting for decades to have the stories of child sex abuse in institutions heard, believed and acted on,” she said.
“So tomorrow is just the start really, of the work of parliament and of this government and successive governments to respond to the work of the independent Committee of Inquiry, and to make sure that our institutions future proof are child safe for everybody forever.”
The Commission was Tasmania’s first Commission of Inquiry – the state’s equivalent of a Royal Commission – since 1999 and was called in the wake of a series of scandals within government departments.
Rolling coverage of the report, the premier’s statement and reactions of key stakeholders will be filed to themercury.com.au throughout the day.
Originally published as Commission of Inquiry Tasmania: Mixed reaction of victim-survivors to Premier’s ministerial statement
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