-truthing tasmania- child sexual abuse in australia’s island state

Parents need to know about organisations that have a track record of failing to keep kids safe from sex offenders. Regulators in Tasmania won’t name and shame these organisations. One college in Launceston has had at least six child sex offenders since 2005! Private schools, childcare centres and sporting clubs across Tasmania are all high-risk…

Paedophiles are easy to detect when their grooming tactics are understood. It is in fact the failure to report by institutional leaders that allows them to predate many children often over the course of years if not decades. Recent media has it that a Victorian childcare worker is believed to have had access to over…

The astronomical blowout in the Tasmanian budget deficit is primarily due to the enormous provisions required for payouts to potentially thousands of victim-survivors of CSA in State institutions, and implementing the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry. Even those dismissive of child sexual abuse and its harms to children must confront this fiscal reality. With…

Should Tasmanians be concerned that some of our elected officials are considered unsafe around children? There are politicians known to be unsafe around children given that their Working with Vulnerable (WWVP) clearance has been rescinded. Still, they continue in elected office, as there is no legislative mechanism to remove them. At the last State election,…

The trial of France’s most notorious paedophile, a retired surgeon, shows how the code of silence was what allowed him to predate hundreds of victims throughout is highly successful career. This same code of silence continues to protect paedophiles in Tasmania. Omerta refers to the code of silence used by the mafia internationally to protect…

A suicide cluster in young men is a not an early warning sign of unacknowledged child sexual abuse in past decades. It is too late when it emerges. It was the suicide clusters in Ballarat that finally revealed the full extent of organised abuse in Catholic schools in that community over almost four decades. Boys…

Victims of child abuse are meant to be passive and cowered. This is why perpetrators of child abuse and their institutional enablers are confused, dismayed and indignant to find that their victims are calling them out. Mice are not meant to roar! Child sexual abuse has long been a taboo subject in Tasmania, with victims…

Australian Children’s Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, says that there are ongoing gaps in the national scaffolding with all Australian States and Territories struggling to make institutions accountable for ongoing failures in child safeguarding! The human rights of children continue to be breached. The national cabinet needs to make children a priority. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-14/call-for-residential-care-home-inquiry-after-child-exploitation/105285832 Key takeaways for this…

Child sexual abuse tolerated is the worst manifestation of a toxic institutional culture!. Wherever child sexual abuse is tolerated there will be all manner of other wrongdoing happening. True culture change means ‘putting all the rubbish out’!. This is a complicating factor for those trying to improve child safeguarding in an institution or organisation. Even…

Those institutional leaders confronted with allegations of child sexual abuse In Tasmania know that the risks of reporting it far outweigh the risk of sanctions for failing to act. Reporting alleged offenders to the Police will almost certainly result in recriminations from Board Directors, colleagues, professional associations and unions, but a failure to report will…

We are tempted to see child sexual abuse as being rare and an organisational aberration. In reality CSA is common and ubiquitous. It happens everywhere and anywhere that safeguarding is weak. As such, sensible vigilance is needed or we risk ‘green lighting’ the paedophiles in our community. With somewhere between 1-4% of men and also…

The dark triad consists of Tasmania Police, the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Solicitor General’s Department. Uniquely in Australia, the Tasmanian Government of the day has direct control over these agencies, and as such will have opportunity to politicise their decisions. The truth of this is yet to be tested! This is further…

I am often asked if the Tasmanian Commission of Inquiry (COI) into child sexual abuse in Government institutions will make children safer. In reality it is too early to say but the signs are not universally positive. Yes, significant resources are being expended to implement the recommendations of the COI but there are emerging concerns:…

While not wishing to make comment on the current furore engulfing the Launceston City Council it is a timely reminder that Tasmania is yet to acknowledge that the patriarchy is real and that it continues to exert undue influence over women and children in our society. One has only to look at the day to…

In 2018, the TAS Govt along with all States & Territories agreed to implement the recommendations of the Commonwealth Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, including those directed at Local Govt. Recommendations requiring Councils establish child safe signage in all Council-operated facilities- sports grounds, halls, child care centres. So, eight years later, where is all…

The LOUDfence on St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral in Ballarat has been there for nearly 10 years. Initial attempts to remove the ribbons saw a public outcry with LOUDfence supporters restoring the fence. The message for institutions is to own your LOUDfence or it will own you. A LOUDfence is a public expression of grief and…

This is not a typo!  Leaders gain esteem and social standing through association with their institution. It “gold plates” their reputation. This is one of the reasons that they are loath to damage their institution’s reputation by acknowledging the presence of child sexual abuse. A failure to act on their personal and professional duty of…

After a stalemate that has existed since the National Redress Scheme was implemented, States and Territories have finally agreed to financially underwrite the financial compensation of victim-survivors of child sexual abuse associated with sports. This ABC news article notes that at least 50 sports-related redress applications have been unactionable until now. State, territory and federal…

Those of us who suffered abuse at the hands of priests and other religious often find it is the spiritual wounds which prove hardest to heal! Some church leaders in Tasmania have shown the moral courage and leadership to acknowledge the historical failures which saw paedophiles relocated repeatedly to avert the scandal of widespread sexual…

Victims experience challenges in common but men have particular difficulties. Victims commonly experience anxiety, depression, suicidality, feelings of worthlessness, shame, anger and self-blame as well as struggles with trust, intimacy and other relationship problems, challenges relating to sexuality and gender, identity issues and addictions, and challenges with authorities.  Men also experience other difficulties associated with cultural attitudes about the role of…

Only too often the victims of child sexual abuse are characterised as ; people seeking attention ; full of self-pity ; selfish ; gold diggers. All of these slurs serve to stigmatise victims and add to their trauma when seeking justice for the abuse they have received. Sexual abuse in childhood incurs lifelong harms, and…

This means that we take the extra steps to protect children exposed to child sexual abuse. As public servants we are repeatedly told to ‘stay in our lane’ and allow others to deal with allegations of sexual abuse. The unfortunate reality is that too often accusations of child sexual abuse are discounted. My career in…

This is a message for those inclined to seek sexual gratification with children! Stop It Now! Australia is a child sexual abuse prevention program that works with adults concerned about their own, or someone else’s sexual thoughts or behaviours towards children. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse identified a gap in preventative…

“Who is to see what’s become of me in the country of the blind”! – HG Wells This blog seeks to understand how state-sponsored child sexual abuse has become entrenched in Australia’s island state of Tasmania, with generations of public servants wilfully blind to the actions of perpetrators, as revealed by the Commission of Inquiry.  Hospitals,…

The Commonwealth Royal Commission in 2017 recommended that local government assume a key role in preventing child sexual abuse. The Tasmanian Government agreed to implement this, but progress has been negligible, with some notable exceptions like the Launceston City Council. Many Councils simply have opted out! We can’t allow a situation that sees entities respondent…

The Weiss Report into the sexual offending of Senior Sergeant Paul Reynolds revealed that most of the 52 boys he targeted were young players involved in AFL clubs across Northern Tasmania, but also some basketball associations. The Weiss report also alluded to an alleged failure of the then Northern Tasmania Football Association (NTFA) Board to…

In the late 1990s when as a Business Manager at a Tasmanian Public Hospital I advocated on behalf of young female staff members being monstered by a senior doctor. My unfortunate experience was that my fellow Executives closed ranks to protect this doctor. He was promoted, and my employment was threatened! My reflection is that…

Put on your thinking cap Tasmania! I am often dismayed to see that Tasmanian institutions are not drawing on the research evidence when developing their strategies to implement the recommendations of the Tasmania Commission of Inquiry.  The published research literature along with ‘grey’ literature, when supplemented by the lived experience of victim-survivors, will best place…

Changing attitudes does not change behaviour! Research shows that international efforts to change attitudes about child sexual abuse in institutions has not delivered the behavioural changes sought. Offenders continue to seek out victims, staff continue to be ‘onlookers’, and management continue to enable the abuse by wilful blindness. Behaviour is a function of consequence, not…

The problems that can be fixed by money are amongst the easiest. Those that can be fixed by legislative change are easier again. Those that require a change of heart are the hardest! The marginalia refers to the handwritten notes in the margins of books. These constitute the footnotes to a narrative that are otherwise forgotten and…

One Launceston school has seen seven child sex offenders identified in the media since 2005. Is this too many, or is it to be considered acceptable given the size of the College? This question speaks to our cultural attitudes about child sexual abuse that views it is an inevitable in much the same way that…

Can an institution eliminate the risk of child sexual abuse?  Those of us old enough will recall a time when workplace injuries and deaths were viewed as inevitable. Thanks to the work of unions however deaths and serious injuries are seen as sentinel events. Borrowing from an industrial safety maxim the ‘Fire Triangle’, there are…

Important Note: Most police officers honour their sworn oath to protect the community. However some betray their oath and predate the communities they are sworn to serve! In 2018, Tasmania Police leadership gave a full honour guard funeral to an officer they knew to be a serial paedophile. This officer was later found to have…

Are paedophiles generally lone offenders or do they operate within organised networks? This question is controversial. You will recall the ‘Stranger Danger” epithet of past decades characterising child sex abusers as lone monsters predating random victims.  We now know that in fact most victims will be very familiar with their abuser.  Research shows that most…

Reprisals by Tasmanian institutions is one of the main reasons given for not reporting child sexual abuse! At one of the public consultations of the Commission Of Inquiry, a Commissioner posed the question as to what was different about Tasmania that would see a known paedophile allowed to work on a Children’s Ward for almost…