Dr WOODRUFF - Minister, during the commision of inquiry's targeted consultation that they did of Tasmania Police, one officer described young people at Ashley as 'the worst of the worst,' and said, 'They are not very nice people, these kids.' Another said, 'It was too easy for kids to make allegations about these staff and their reward for holding the line against these kids is to be the subject of allegations'.
That consultation the commission did took place after at least some training had apparently taken place with Tasmania Police. There are also claims of a police officer laughing at allegations against a staff member at Ashley and the Assistant Commissioner of Operations noted that Tasmania Police needed to work 'on its unconscious bias' against detainees or young people with a criminal history wanting to disclose child sexual abuse to police.
This is clearly not unconscious bias, it's overt bias. It's troubling that bias not only exists in Tasmania Police but appears to have persisted after training has been taking place. I would like to hear, probably from the commissioner, about what she'd intend to do about police officers whose attitudes persist even after training, whether Tasmania Police is prepared to instigate codes of conduct or terminate officers who resist cultural change?
Mr ELLIS - Thank you, Dr Woodruff. I will offer a few comments to begin and I will pass to the commissioner as well. Tasmania Police will review the finding in volume 5, chapter 11, which relates to improving its responses to allegations of child sexual abuse made by a current and former and detainees at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre. Tasmania Police recognise the cultural change component of this finding and it's in line with the findings from the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse. Amendments were made in 2021 to the Tasmania Police Manual to reflect cultural change and victim principles -
Dr WOODRUFF - Thank you, minister, I don't have long. Thank you, but that's not answering my specific question.
CHAIR - Order, Dr Woodruff. Please allow the minister to answer.
Mr ELLIS - Dr Woodruff, I am only trying to be helpful here.
Dr WOODRUFF - I'd love to hear from the commissioner.
Mr ELLIS - The Education and Training Commander are reviewing the current curriculum to both recruit and in-service programs to embed and reflect cultural change. I know that Tasmania Police are committed to this work. I will pass over to the commissioner.
Ms ADAMS - The Tasmania Police, under my leadership, went through a significant body of work to look at our values and to ensure that our values represented how we, as an organisation, want to behave and how the community expect us to behave. We had close to 50 per cent of our staff engaged in that particular program.
The values have changed and we expect our staff to live and act in accordance with those values of being accountable, integrity and respect and support and in every opportunity that we have to reinforce and showcase the great examples of behaviour in alignment to those values we do, but conversely, we also do that where those values and the behaviour does not meet our standards and expectations.
If those scenarios, as you have described and they are in the Commission of Inquiry Report, were to happen right now, absolutely the first reference point is back to the values and seeking an explanation from our officers about whether the behaviour and comments were in alignment with those values and based on what may or may not be their motivations for making the comments would be something that I'd consider, but it is an important thing. Values are not words on the wall, they are what we expect of our organisation in all police officers and we continually use examples to highlight what we expect.
Not only have we got our values, we re-did the Keeping Children Safe handbook in collaboration with the department of Children, Young People and Education and we have very clear protocols in there about what is expected when police officers attend a youth detention centre to take a complaint.
We also now have specialists, sex investigators, who will be the people that will attend youth detention centres to take those complaints. They're trauma informed, they have received training and that is why we have dedicated our Family and Sexual Violence Command to ensuring that they are the pre-eminent command that will provide support to victims in relation to complaints and allegations of child sexual abuse. I would like to think that it won't happen, it wouldn't happen again.
Dr WOODRUFF - If it did happen again, and a complaint was made, then what would the process for action in response to such comments?
Ms ADAMS - As I said, we would expect that our police officers would be asked to provide their perspective on why the allegation or complaint was made and then we would determine whether that needed to move to a code of conduct investigation or not, but very clearly the values are what we expect our police officers to behave in alignment with.
Dr WOODRUFF - Are people screened when they apply for entry into Tasmania Police for child sex abuse and where do those referrals go to?
Ms ADAMS - Referrals we wouldn't take a -
Dr WOODRUFF - Well who does that screening, it's within Tasmania Police?
Ms ADAMS - We do an extensive screening. We have an independent provider that does what we call a job suitability test, which is a screen before they actually get to the next gateway of interview and further examination of their character. Then, as part of our selection process, there's an extensive intelligence review. It's a review across other jurisdiction with national criminal intelligence systems across Australia to ensure that we don't have individuals who've got concerns that we wouldn't employ. We often pick up individuals who have applied that do have those reports and intelligence in other jurisdictions.
Dr WOODRUFF - The handling of James Griffin's complaints was one of the matters that was deeply concerning. I note that there was an internal investigation that identified some of the key details of the failure that took place. In respect of the mishandling of the Australian Federal Police information, some disciplinary actions were taken but there's so much that we still don't know about those matters. Given the attitudes of some police officers identified by the commissioners in their report, did the investigation into Griffin examine whether or not any of the acts or omissions in relation to reports in respect of Griffin, whether they were deliberately made because the officers involved did not believe the allegations?
Ms ADAMS - It was a very comprehensive examination and review in relation to our touch points in relation to Griffin. That comprehensive review was to provide it to the commission of inquiry as part of an active disclosure that we made to the commission of inquiry. I am confident with the findings that came as a result of that review, we've taken immediate action in terms of training, the disciplinary reaction as you've identified and the commission of inquiry also had an opportunity to review the extensive report and the nature of the investigation that we undertook in response to Griffin.
Dr WOODRUFF - I've got one more, the current investigation into Tasmania Police has its terms of reference that were written by yourself as commissioner and it does not have the power to compel witnesses. Compliance is voluntary for former officers. You have said that you will instruct serving officers to provide testimony but you have no jurisdiction over past officers, such as people who have been named in relation to Paul Reynolds, such as the former commissioner and other former members.
This is apparently extremely serious and, at least on the face of it, very suspicious failings of Tasmania Police in relation to Griffin and Reynolds. Do you understand why people in the community are concerned about the model of investigation that you're currently overseeing?
Ms ADAMS - I can understand their concern in the first instance about our response to it, but a very clear message to anyone listening they should have complete confidence in our independent reviewer. I've spoken to the independent reviewer and I've asked her at any time if she believes that the terms of reference need to be broadened, if at any time she needs me to provide a direction to any current police officer to answer questions, that I will.
The independent reviewer has come back and has asked for me to extend the public's submissions and the opportunity for her to continue with private sessions. Absolutely, I endorse that approach. I have complete confidence in the independent reviewer and the credentials she has. I have been provided anecdotal information from victims/survivors who also have confidence in our independent reviewer. Let me say, as a commissioner -
Dr WOODRUFF - There is no doubt about that, there is no question about the reviewer. There has never been a question about Ms Weiss. The question is about her powers. I hear what you're saying about serving officers, but what about former officers, what if they don't want to appear and provide testimony?
Ms ADAMS - Again, if the independent reviewer needs any additional support, expansion of terms of reference, or runs into any blockages that would -
Dr WOODRUFF - Or additional powers to compel people to appear.
Ms ADAMS - I've spoken to the independent reviewer and she does not believe that she needs any independent powers. She's done a review similar to this in Victoria with Victoria Racing. She speaks very confidently about her ability to engage with people she needs to get to the bottom of the truth.
As commissioner, on behalf of every Tasmania Police officer, I want to know whether we've got people involved that have covered up for Reynolds, whether there are code of conduct breaches, whether there are crimes committed. How can we give the confidence to the community unless we have a review that is independent and of this comprehensive nature?
Dr WOODRUFF - Yes, and I really hope that it gives people closure.
Ms ADAMS - We will publicly release that report. It is in the interests of us to restore that confidence in the community that we do that. We have been very clear that will be the approach we'll take. We should get an interim report by the end of January. That report will come to me and I will publicly make available.
