For an understanding of what has transpired, Nick Feik’s article The rotten core<\/span><\/a> is essential reading.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Only a single alleged perpetrator had been brought to court (and this case had already been under investigation prior to the commission\u2019s referral). Every other case had already been dismissed.<\/span><\/p>\n Launceston General Hospital:<\/strong> “Authorities, hospital management and the department were still trying to contain the damage in late 2020, when independent journalist Camille Bianchi released a podcast series, The Nurse<\/a><\/span>, which exposed the whole horrible story to the broader public. The community response was overwhelming: outrage, disgust, fear. It also led to more people coming forward with allegations against Griffin. Yet still the authorities held firm against further action.”<\/span><\/p>\n “Erin” | Ashley Youth Detention Centre:<\/strong> “On one occasion I was left in a room by myself with about 10 other male detainees and no worker supervising. In this time I was sexually assaulted. I shouldn\u2019t have been left alone with these boys, the staff had a duty of care to look after me.”<\/span><\/p>\n “I would describe the staff at Ashley as being like a pack of animals. Some of them had been working there for 30 years. They all went to school together. They were all from Deloraine which was a small country town. They all looked after each other.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n “As has been pointed out, none of this was news to the Tasmanian government” – Inside Ashley Youth Detention Centre Prison for kids in Tasmania<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ashley is Tasmania\u2019s only place of youth detention. The government has promised to close it down, but it remains open and conditions are as bad as ever. Children as young as 10 are placed there, mostly on remand for petty crime (meaning they haven\u2019t yet faced trial or been found guilty of any charges).<\/span><\/p>\n For decades, there was virtually no practical, operational oversight of the centre by any external authority, despite the legal requirement around the mandatory reporting of crimes involving children.<\/span><\/p>\n To this day, residents are regularly locked down 23 hours a day for days at a time \u2013 a practice that fits the United Nations definition of torture. <\/span><\/p>\n Children were taken on excursions then sexually abused by staff offsite. More often it happened onsite.<\/span><\/p>\n The government\u2019s response, over decades, amounted to a sophisticated protection scheme for the abusers.<\/span><\/p>\n When the then acting secretary of DHHS, Michael Pervan, signed off on the scheme\u2019s final report in 2014, he may have thought he\u2019d seen the last of these claims.<\/span><\/p>\n This was part of the scheme\u2019s design, after all: victims, often without legal representation, signed documents waiving their rights to future civil claims. And the department held legal advice from the state\u2019s Office of the Solicitor-General advising that information contained in the claims \u2013 details of perpetrators, dates and places \u2013 couldn\u2019t be used as evidence in criminal proceedings.<\/span><\/p>\n The files weren\u2019t even cross-checked with the list of current employees. These testimonies should have alerted the department, police and child protection services to alleged abusers still employed at Ashley \u2013 staff who would remain there, offending, for years to come despite the serious allegations against them, including multiple counts of rape, which the government had accepted as true. It had paid out on them.” [$55 million to almost 2000 victim-survivors, from more than 50 state care institutions, in amounts capped at $60,000.] – Nick Feik <\/span> “After all these years, we\u2019ve finally discovered what you have to do to get sacked around here. More heads have now rolled because they wanted to tell a tale about a delayed ferry terminal than because of institutional child abuse, the chronic underperformance of our housing provider, our education system, our hospitals, our prisons and our youth detention centre. Put together.” <\/span>Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nick Feik:<\/strong> “It is hard to conceive of a more devastating indictment of a government, or a more catastrophic, complete failure. There was complicity and negligence at every level, across departments and authorities. The victims are in the thousands, and their number is growing.<\/span><\/p>\n The responsibility for fixing these problems resides with the Tasmanian government. And if it\u2019s unwilling \u2013 or incapable \u2013 of it? These are problems of national significance. They demand national attention.”<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n One can’t help but draw parallels between the hysteria of fake concern that created the Intervention<\/a><\/span>, with its well-publicised, if bogus paedophile rings, and the blanket unconcern for the reality of decades of child abuse in Tasmania. “Firstly, the pretexts on which (the Intervention) was launched were all demonstrably fraudulent. Secondly, the grounds on which it was justified are also all demonstrably false” – A Decade On, The Fraud Of The NT Intervention Is Exposed<\/strong><\/span><\/a> | By Michael Brull | New Matilda<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The decades of child abuse in Tasmania which is well-documented, has received scant attention and action compared to the Intervention into Aboriginal communities. A campaign which vilified Aboriginal people, resulted in the military being deployed and saw 73 Aboriginal communities being \u201cprescribed\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Inside Ashley Youth Detention Centre Prison for kids in Tasmania<\/a><\/span> | A \u201cgladiator pit\u201d, a \u201cwar zone\u201d, a \u201ckindergarten for the adult prison\u201d – these are just some of the ways Tasmania\u2019s only youth detention centre has been described<\/span><\/p>\n The rotten core<\/span><\/a><\/span> \u2013 by Nick Feik<\/span><\/p>\n Ashley Youth Detention Centre class action complainants reach $75 million in-principle agreement<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Government suddenly loses its appetite for the blame game, David Killick says<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The phone call behind The Nurse podcast that exposed paedophile James Geoffrey Griffin<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Ashley Youth Detention Centre<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n A look at the media\u2019s role in the NT Intervention, 10 years on<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\nSnippets<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Ashley-youth-detention.jpg?resize=600%2C567&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/p>\nTasmanian government sack someone!<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/DPAC-Tasmaian-govt-Public-servants-suspended.jpg?resize=702%2C521&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Active disclosure Length of suspension on full pay State Servants currently suspended as at 19 July 2024<\/span><\/a> (PDF)
\n<\/span>Routine Disclosure \u2013 Notifications of State servant suspensions from duty as a result of allegations of child sexual abuse \u2013 Since October 2020 | as at 19 July 2024<\/span><\/a> (PDF)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Nick_Feik-The_rotten_core.jpg?resize=697%2C541&ssl=1\")
<\/a>The rotten core | Nick Feik<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/No-Federal-intervention-for-mass-child-abuse.jpg?resize=696%2C263&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFaux concern vs a lack of concern<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\nRelated<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n