The NSW government spent $3.7 million on a child abuse case that could have been settled with a modest sum and an apology, a high-ranking public servant has told a national inquiry.
Michael Coutts-Trotter, the secretary of the NSW Department of Family and Community Services, admitted on Friday the state had failed to protect Aboriginal children from abuse at a foster home it licensed, and then treated them badly when they asked for an apology and compensation 20 years later.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Handling of Child Sexual Abuse has uncovered major failings in the state's handling of allegations of abuse at Bethcar foster home at Brewarrina, NSW, in the 1970s and '80s and in its defence of a civil case taken by 15 former residents.
Mr Coutts-Trotter made a strong apology to the abuse survivors to the inquiry and pledged changes to his department's handling of abuse cases.
Of the $3.7 million the Bethcar case cost the government, 60 per cent went towards legal costs, "most of which were avoidable and should have been avoided", he said.
Thirteen of the plaintiffs were awarded $107,000 in a settlement this year. The case began in 2008.
Changes raised by Mr Coutts-Trotter include the appointment of a general counsel to report directly to the department secretary, an initial response to claims within three months, and a commitment to start from a position of believing the victims.
The civil claim brought on behalf of the Bethcar survivors by the Women's Legal Centre was fought by the Crown Solicitor's Office. Mediation was rejected even when the state was told a modest sum and an apology was what survivors wanted.
In a tactic that lengthened proceedings, the plaintiffs were asked to prove they were abused even though a criminal court had accepted their evidence and jailed one of their tormentors, Colin Gibson, in 2007 for a total of 30 years.
Most of the women in the civil case were very poor and lived in remote areas of NSW, and had been commended on their bravery and honesty during the criminal hearing.
Mr Coutts-Trotter said he was ashamed they were again asked for particulars of the abuse in the civil case.
One plaintiff, referred to as AII, who was abused by Gibson for seven years starting when she was 10, withdrew from the class action because state lawyers wanted to contact her employer and she was afraid she would lose her job.
"She had every right to expect that we would believe what she put to us," Mr Coutts-Trotter said, and invited her legal representative to contact the department.
He also said mediation would now be arranged earlier in the proceedings.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.
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