Grooming happens when a person in a position of power tries to declare a reality that isn’t true but that the subservient victim has no power to correct. The constructed reality is always about keeping the victim powerless and the groomer safe.

When people speak about something being off, or the ick factor, or something creepy, it is usually because of something like this . A reality that feels icky but it is hard to speak about.

That is why it is so important to say that Jeremy Rockcliff and the Liberal party did not win this election. We look at his primary vote and see that he is liked. Groomers usually are well liked too. They have grown power and popularity over years and that power and status makes the people being groomed doubt themselves.

Obviously I am not accusing Jeremy of anything illegal, but this is a teaching moment for Tasmanians.

Tasmania is undergoing a cultural shift around sexual predators. Grace Tame found a way to speak about it publicly and without nicety. People who were children at the school where she was abused say that everyone knew and because Grace spoke out, they and others like them are finding their voice.

But it was Katherine Morgan Wicks who changed the culture. We already trusted her straight, unflappable disclosure of covid facts through the pandemic and then she told us at a press conference as if it were a covid update, about James Griffin offending over years as a nurse at the Launceston General Hospital. And she was so authentic and on behalf of the infrastructure that let those children down we felt her take responsibility and commit to make it right. Let’s call that the anti ick factor. That moment where the child’s reality becomes THE reality. It feels so good becuse it is true.

And slowly but surely conversations have unfolded where perpertrators take their rightful place in the poo and victims are realeased from the ick. Paul Reynolds killed himself before his victims got that chance but the independent inquiry commissioned when Donna Adams bravely said, “Leave no stone unturned’ has begun the path to restore dignity. If you felt like the AFL team was tangled in the political debate this might be why. Reynolds groomed and abused children as part of the power reality he created as a police officer heavily involved in football and basketball in the state. I found the report in a link from the sussex university article on Tasmania’s elite cartel, where it said that Tasmania’s elite cartel corruption remains socially demoralising and costly. https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/centre-for-the-study-of-corruption/2025/05/07/elite-cartel-corruption-in-tasmania-the-nature-of-the-game/

Costly to the Tasmanian people of course, not to the people in power.

At the start of last year Katherine Morgan Wicks was made Secretary to the Premier, so head of the public service.

We now have a woman with integrity and a real ability to be straight with ick as head of the Tasmanian public service, Tasmania’s largest employer.

Cultural change is happening in Tasmania and will continue as we all call out lies and deception at all levels.

Click to access FINAL_Weiss-Review-Report_24July2024.pdf