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 the Hospital’s policies and protocols at the time were in fact adequate to deal with the sexual harassment of staff, but they were totally circumvented at the direction of Hospital leadership. As such, what confidence can we have that strengthening legislation and adding more regulatory bodies will improve safety for children?

Legislation and regulation is meaningless unless enforced. In fact it is worse than meaningless as it affords a false sense of reassurance.

Complaints were intercepted and destroyed. The staff concerned were intimidated.

The hospital in question maintained its accreditation from the regulator over decades despite the reality of catastrophic governance failures that ultimately resulted in a known paedophile being permitted to work on the Children’s Ward for nearly 18 years.

In my experience I have never seen a regulator invoke its powers to sanction an individual for failing to discharge their legislated duty of care to report the professional misconduct of a peer.

This is the ‘elephant in the room’. Regulators refuse to regulate !