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 have no such consequences.

There are ample excuses for failing to report, and ‘looking the other way’ remains the most sensible choice. Post the Commission of Inquiry there is no evidence to show that the calculus of management decision-making has changed, and ‘cover-ups’ will remain the logical go-to approach.

While Tasmania, like most Australian jurisdictions make it a crime to ‘fail to protect a child’, prosecutions are exceedingly rare. Regulators do have powers to apply financial penalties but they have made it abundantly clear this is considered a ‘last-resort’ option and very unlikely to be supported by the Solicitor General’s office to which they are beholden. No public servant has been held in anyway accountable for presiding over the widescale and catastrophic failures revealed by the Commission of Inquiry.

Behaviour is a function of consequence and with no consequences for CSA ‘cover-ups’, they are sure to continue. Accountability is foundational to future prevention, and with institutional leaders escaping sanction, the calculus of decision-making remains very much in favour of ongoing cover-ups, and change is going to be glacially slow.

I myself lost my career in the Tasmanian Hospital system when I refused to go along with a cover-up that allowed a senior doctor to monster and sexually harass young women in his department! The culture of Tasmanian institutions is to apply career reprisals on anyone who ‘breaks ranks’, and this has not changed unfortunately.