Apology to All Victim-survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse in Tasmanian Health System

Statement – Kathrine Morgan-Wicks, Secretary, Department of Health, 5 July 2022

Personal reflection and apology to all victim-survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse in the Tasmanian Health System

I have been asked as the current Secretary and head of the Department of Health to provide a personal reflection to the Commission, on the evidence presented in the Commission of Inquiry Health Hearings.

I have recorded this in writing, as it is too important to me to simply speak off the cuff. I am a lawyer by trade and to me the written word has deep meaning. I have thought long and hard about how I can express my reflection and apology, and have done my best to do this, which is from my heart and as a human being that has heard all that has been said in this room. I have also committed my apology to writing so that it can be shared with the victim-survivors that are not here or are yet to be heard.

I am personally horrified by the lack of empathy, humanity, and often a lack of trauma-informed approach by my Department and the Tasmanian Health Service to such devastating accounts of abuse from the victim-survivors who have shown immense courage to come forward.

In addition to these victim-survivors, I also acknowledge the victim-survivors that have made submissions to the inquiry but have not been called, those that have chosen to remain silent, and those that are wracked with uncertainty, unaware if they or their children may have been patient victims of James Geoffrey Griffin or other as yet unnamed perpetrators within our health system.

Whilst I have read file notes, complaints, and transcripts of podcasts, nothing can replace the significant impact of hearing directly from the victim-survivors and the staff involved, which is why I committed to attend every day of the Health hearings in person to hear it all first hand.

Often the role of Secretary is seen as one that is all-knowing, with knowledge deep into many layers of complex and hierarchical systems and people, or across multiple agencies.  While I wish this was true, the fact is that I have learned a tremendous amount by simply sitting and listening this week and last week – to our victim survivors, to brave staff that have come forward to report their concerns, and to staff that I have had many dealings with but perhaps I did not ask the right questions or provide the right guidance to – to ensure that a matter was properly dealt with. I have had many ‘I wish’ moments this week – I wish I had done, I wish I had asked more, I wish I had dived deeper, I wish I had known X detail and acted earlier – and I will take these learnings with me for the rest of my life.

I am personally devastated by the lack of care or supports offered to victim-survivors at the time they reported abuse, the lack of proper procedure or protocol to record the account or keep records, and the lack of relevant training on interviewing and investigation and detection of grooming and the abuse of a child.

From the evidence and from my conversations with several witnesses, including staff that have come forward to report – they all share a common story of feeling fobbed off, their abuse minimised, or their complaint ignored, and they did not feel supported in relation to the serious harms or incidents they reported.

This is wrong and an absolute failure by our health system – for which I am deeply sorry.

I am personally so very sorry to hear these accounts, for the failure by the Launceston General Hospital and Department to properly respond at the time, and for our inability to detect indicators of abuse by reason of human error, a lack of training, a lack of leadership or accountability, a reported lack of knowledge or awareness of even the most basic signs of grooming behaviour, made worse by unconnected or siloed systems, despite the red flags or signs.

I apologise for the failures of the Department of Health, in particular by the Launceston General Hospital and Tasmanian Health Service, and commit to making large-scale change to ensure any complaint of child sexual abuse or other such serious misconduct by an employee, volunteer or contractor is independently reviewed and acted upon in a trauma-informed  and proper investigatory manner, and all prior complaints, substantiated or unsubstantiated, are reviewed each time a new complaint is received.

I have spoken with each victim-survivor or their family representatives that attended the hearings to provide their brave accounts, to provide my personal apology on behalf of the Department of Health and I have asked our victim-survivors, should they wish, to be involved in implementing this large-scale and long-term change. Should any other Health victim-survivor wish to speak to me or to be involved – please contact me.

While my words alone will not heal the hurt of all those that have suffered, nor will words alone comfort those that will never know if they or their children were victims, I will do my very best to lead Health to right the wrongs of the past, so that no one in health now, or our employees of the future, will ever forget the reasons why we must place the safeguarding of children and the vulnerable at the centre of our care.