The Cervical Cancer Inquiry and the ‘full story’

Abstract

The Metro article by Sandra Coney and Phillida Bunkle focused specifically on Associate Professor Herb Green’s research at National Women’s Hospital and sparked the setting up of a committee of inquiry. The interrogation of Green at the Inquiry demonstrated that the Inquiry was not just an exercise in ‘fact finding’. As the Inquiry proceeded, Green’s work was increasingly sidelined as wider issues were canvassed. Sandra Coney’s own book, which appeared at the same time as the Cartwright Report, turned the spotlight back on Green and his colleagues at National Women’s in order to reinforce the more general issues aired during the Inquiry. Coney promised her book would reveal ‘the full story behind the Inquiry’. This chapter focuses on the Inquiry itself, public reactions and submissions, and concludes by revisiting Coney’s book.