On the 26th of September the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings will be tabled in the Tasmanian Parliament.

The weight of expectation around this report – the resulting government actions, and future legislative and policy changes arising – is huge. The tabling of the final report represents the combination of a two year journey to discover the truth.

Highlighting the inadequacies of child protective measures in youth justice, health, education and child protection, the work of the Commission has shaken to the core the confidence of many that there can ever be a reconciliation between the need to protect, and the capability of the government to exercise its most basic functions in an ethical and just manner.

In Tasmanian politics, there is nothing ‘normal’ about the way that the state is run. The Commission of Inquiry has exposed very real problems with the channels of power being exercised and the lack of accountability that takes place.

Those familiar with Tasmanian politics might argue that this is not a new problem …

However, with the context of child protection and youth justice, it appears that the projection of naked political self-interest extends to abandoning even statutory obligations and placing children in danger, if it is felt that the reputation of government departments is at stake.

Ashley Youth Detention Centre, at the heart of some of the most serious allegations, has remained open, with significant questions about the ongoing safety of incarcerated children going unanswered. The closure of the centre was announced two years ago, but government action has been riddled with inertia and ambiguity ever since.

Questions remain about the number of open investigations into staff members accused of abuse, and the progress of criminal matters. At every turn there is obfuscation and prevarication, with the internal processes remaining, at best, opaque.

This habitual instinct of the political classes – to cover themselves with a veil of secrecy – also has complications for the government response to the final report.

The Tasmanian Government has set itself the target of issuing a full response in December later this year. The problem is that this follows the final Parliamentary sessions of 2023. MPs won’t have an opportunity to question Government ministers until February 2024, after Christmas and the school holidays.

If there was ever an explicit attempt to put distance between the final report and public scrutiny, this is it. Bringing forward the date of the full response must be a principal concession when the Tasmanian Government initially responds on 26 September.

For those that have given evidence to public attention their experiences of harm and abuse, or blown the whistle on institutional failures and potentially crimes that they have witnessed in the course of their duties, this political obfuscation is potentially disheartening to say the least.

In the face of a potential and realistic political failure to act, it cannot be left to a few activists alone to raise the alarm, and demand action for root and branch reform. Traditional advocacy will not be sufficiently effective on its own to drive change.

Any response to the report, and the wider implications arising from it, needs to transcend merely legislative and policy change in Hobart; it must be community driven. Disseminating the findings of the report must be instructive for the public, actively educating as much as passively informing.

The challenge will be for the public to decide at what point they draw a line and say no more for campaigners, advocates, activists, whistleblowers, and victims/survivors to be ignored, and how much more of this abusive behaviour, ingrained in state politics for decades, they are willing to tolerate.

This is where we must extend beyond advocacy, and turn child protection into community activism, if there is to be any chance of shifting the priorities of the public.

Only by making child protection a part of people’s considerations when they vote – like health, the economy or climate change – will there be the force of change to compel Tasmania politicians to do what is necessary.

The challenge for activists will be how much they can motivate the public in this direction, but all great political movements have to start somewhere.

Reform of child protection can no longer reside in the purview of the political classes; it must become a political movement. It is time to cast a light on the experience, endurance, and courage of victim/survivors, whistleblowers and activists in the face of some of the greatest adversity imaginable, and turn the power of the few into the many.

This is the innate power that we must capitalise on, if we are to drive forward the principles of justice to protect children from harm and to deliver integrity as an antidote to the poison of corruption that embeds itself in Tasmanian politics.

Jack Davenport is a campaigner for child protection reform, with over 10 years experience in the field as a social worker. He is employed by Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, but is writing in a personal capacity.