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Inquiry into the Tasmanian Dept of Education’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Read the full report of the Inquiry into the Tasmanian Department of Education’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Statement – Department of Education, 9 November 2021
Independent Inquiry into DoE’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
As an organisation, we are deeply sorry for the historical abuse that happened in our schools and apologise unreservedly to the victims and survivors. We recognise and regret our past failings. They have left a lasting and negative impact on the lives of victims and survivors.
DoE welcomes the findings of the Independent Inquiry into DoE’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. We accept all 20 recommendations. The report provides us with practical steps to continue to improve our practices and provide children and young people with the strongest possible safeguards from the harm of abuse. We commit to ensuring that we are an exemplary child safe organisation.
Already, we have taken immediate action to put in place Recommendation 5 from the Inquiry Report. Ms Elizabeth Jack has been appointed as Executive Director, Safeguarding Children and Young People. This recognises the importance of safety and wellbeing for all children and young people in our care. It builds on the holistic approach that we already take to protect the wellbeing of children across all our settings.
We will now continue to put in place all recommendations from the Inquiry. We are fully committed to this. We are embedding a culture where child safety is everybody’s responsibility. The voices of children and young people will be front and centre in this work. We are also working closely with other State Government agencies to meet our responsibilities. We will continue to work hard to correct the wrongs of the past and put in place measures that protect the children in our care. This is our greatest commitment and our highest priority.
Further information on DoE’s response to the Inquiry can be found here. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please contact the Office of Safeguarding Children and Young People in the first instance at safeguarding@education.tas.gov.au or phone 6165 5710.
Media release – Sarah Courtney, Minister for Education, 9 November 2021
Statement on the Release of the Independent Inquiry into the Tasmanian Department of Education’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
The safety and wellbeing of our children is a priority for the Tasmanian Government.
The Independent Inquiry into the Department of Education’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has been provided to the Commission of Inquiry for consideration and appropriate action.
In addition, the Department of Education has fully accepted and commenced the implementation of all recommendations in the Report.
We understand the public interest in this matter and, while we aim to be as transparent as possible, the Government has previously received advice that there is a range of concerns and legal impediments relevant to the release of the full Report.
To conduct their Inquiry, Professors McCormack and Smallbone met with a number of people directly and indirectly affected by child sexual abuse in school settings, including victims, survivors, family members, support people, medical professionals, and State servants.
It is important to note that many of those people contributed to the Inquiry on a confidential basis and we acknowledge their valuable contributions to the Inquiry and want to ensure the rights of these individuals are protected.
Many of these contributors have legal protections preventing the publication of their experiences without their express consent, including protections under section 194K of the Evidence Act 2001 (Tas). The Tasmanian Government respects the right of all people affected by child sexual abuse to determine if and how their experiences are shared.
Balancing these considerations against the public interest in the report, the Government is releasing the Findings and Recommendations of the Report, along with the Government response.
These documents will be available shortly at http://www.education.tas.gov.au
We would like to thank Professors McCormack and Smallbone for their important work on this Report.
The Tasmanian Government’s number one priority is the safety and wellbeing of our children, and we remain committed to ensuring they are supported to reach their full potential.
Josh Willie MLC, Shadow Minister for Education and Early Years & Sarah Lovell MLC, Shadow Minister for Child Safety, 9 November 2021
Urgency required on recommendations of Education Department inquiry
The confronting findings of an independent inquiry into the Education Department’s responses to child sexual abuse require immediate action.
Shadow Education Minister Josh Willie and Shadow Child Safety Minister Sarah Lovell said the report contained extremely disturbing information about sexual abuse within the school system dating back decades, including serious claims that it had not been acted on.
Mr Willie said crucially the recommendations included basic yet common-sense measures which should be implemented as a priority to ensure Tasmanian children in the public school system were safeguarded against the potential for abuse.
“This report is welcome but it underlines that the safety and well-being of Tasmanian children needs to be the government’s highest priority,” Mr Willie said.
“This report contains extremely disturbing evidence and the government needs to assure Tasmanians it will not merely accept its recommendations but act upon them in an urgent way.
“We have to do better by children and these recommendations include fundamental things the government should be doing, including working closely with schools, principals and Tasmania Police to implement measures which safeguard children from the threat of abuse from first occurring.
“Safeguarding is essential as well as fundamental to ensuring all kids are safe at school and the Education Minister Sarah Courtney and the Attorney-General Elise Archer should be treating these recommended reforms with urgency.”
Ms Lovell said it was thanks to the bravery of survivors of sexual abuse that the report had been delivered and the government needed to be listening.
“The safety and well-being of children needs to come first in our schools,” Ms Lovell said.
“We have to listen to our young people and we have to provide assurances that if anyone raises concerns about their safety, those concerns will be will be believed and acted upon.
“The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse highlighted the bravery of survivors in coming forward.
“Survivors of abuse in Tasmania can now be assured they will be heard as the findings of this independent Education Department inquiry are passed to the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.”