'People are still dying': Lasting scars of Australia's tainted blood scandal

Declassified documents raise troubling questions about 1980s bad blood scandal Sun 9 Aug 2026 at 4:42am In 1990 Tristan Stanley's parents received a chilling phone call. Their 10-year-old son, they were told, had tested positive for hepatitis C. "My parents were in shock. They didn't know a lot about hepatitis C. They weren't even aware we'd been tested for it," Tristan tells Australian Story as he looks over his medical records. Following the hospital's advice, the family packed up their lives in the small town of Whyalla and moved to Adelaide so Tristan could be monitored regularly. Having been born with haemophilia, a genetic disorder where a person's blood does not clot properly, Tristan was no stranger to hospital visits. But now, things were different. There was anger mixed with fear. The blood product he had been given to save his life, might now potentially end it. Decades on, Tristan is determined to piece together what happened. He is one of thousands of Australians who were transfused with contaminated blood in the 1980s. "We were told we had one of the safest blood supplies in the world. But if that's the case, how did so many get infected?" Tristan asks. Like many who have trodden this path before him, he has received expressions of empathy from the institutions involved, but no action. He hopes new documents he has recently uncovered will get their attention: cabinet minutes that raise troubling questions about decisions made at the peak of the crisis. Now they might listen. Now they might act. Loading...A global infected blood scandal Up to 20,000 Australians were infected with hepatitis C or HIV during the 1970s to 1990s from contaminated plasma products and routine blood transfusions. Hundreds died, while others have lived for decades with serious medical consequences. Infected blood was a global scandal. While countries like Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom have had independent inquiries and established wide-ranging compensation schemes, survivors here argue Australia is yet to fully reckon with this dark chapter. A 2004 Senate inquiry into hepatitis C went for four days and found financial compensation was "not in the best interests" of those infected, and that best practice was followed at the time. The findings were distressing for those who had been infected with hepatitis C from contaminated blood. Equally galling was the government's failure to follow through on a recommended national apology. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing told Australian Story it recognised the profound and lasting impact that, "historical contaminated blood products have had on affected Australians", and that support initiatives were implemented following the 2004 Senate inquiry. Miracle treatment 'turns out to be poison' Prior to the 1970s, life for someone with haemophilia was fairly grim. A bump or fall usually meant a lengthy stay in hospital to administer treatment. Bleeds were excruciatingly painful and sometimes fatal. Then along came Factor VIII — a blood-clotting product that could be injected intravenously at home. "It was a game changer for haemophiliacs … you could live an almost normal life," Tristan says. "But for thousands of us, this product turned out to be poison." Unlike the previous treatment, which was made from a single blood donation, Factor VIII was made by pooling thousands of donations. It only took one infected donor to contaminate the whole batch. Having hepatitis C meant that Tristan was constantly tired and lacked energy. Then there was the mental torment — the rumours that went around school, the questions from concerned parents. "It took me decades to clear the virus. I went through multiple treatment options … some of them had horrible side effects." Despite all of this, he considers himself lucky compared to his friends Tony and Niel. Like Tristan, Tony David's blood-clotting product was infected with hepatitis C. In 2002, a 25-year-old Tony was riding high after becoming the first Australian to win the World Darts Championship. But then his liver began to fail. Within a few years, he was on the operating table undergoing his first liver transplant. "I was absolutely shocked. I was terrified I was going to die," he says. After a few months, the virus began to attack his new liver. He ended up back on the operating table a decade later, undergoing a second transplant. However, within weeks the second liver began to fail. As his health rapidly deteriorated, an emaciated Tony was told he was once again dying. He underwent a third and final transplant in 2020. "This is my last shot. If this one fails … there's not enough connective tissue to attach another liver." 'I felt like a leper' But it wasn't just people with haemophilia who were affected. Niel Lake's health and career were ruined by hepatitis C, contracted from a post-operative blood transfusion. "I was constantly feeling sick. I'd be sitting in my office and vomit in a plastic bag. I'd tie it up and try and get rid of it," Niel tells Australian Story. A rising star in the Australian Federal Police, Niel was forced to take early retirement in his 30s. There was also a lot of stigma that came with hepatitis C — a virus traditionally associated with drug addicts. "It certainly alienated me from a lot of my colleagues and friends," he says. It also strained his personal relationships. "I felt like a leper in my own household," he says. After undergoing two rounds of treatment to clear the virus, which was as debilitating as the virus itself, Niel no longer has hepatitis C, but the damage to his liver had been done. "We're often told this is an historical issue, but what [the government] fail to realise is that people are still suffering, people are still dying," Tristan says. Heartbreak in the courts Like Tristan and Tony, Lyn Hatch's son Martin, born with mild haemophilia, was infected with hepatitis C. But his blood products were also carrying a more immediately deadly virus. "To tell a 14-year-old that he's got AIDS … it was just horrendous," Lyn recalls. "But he was a brave boy until the end." Martin's legal case was the first to run in Australia. Lyn would go to the courts in the morning, before heading to the hospital. "They had a cast of thousands," Lyn says of the defendants. "Our barristers … acted pro bono." The findings were brought down on the day of Martin's funeral. The hospital, the Red Cross and Commonwealth Serum Laboratories were all cleared of negligence. Apart from the emotional devastation, the family also faced financial ruin. Upon learning of Martin's HIV status, their business partner left. "We lost our business. Our house was tied up with the business; we had to sell the house. So we ended up with nothing." In the end, the family received $30,000 from the Commonwealth government via the Mark Fitzpatrick Trust, a limited fund set up to provide financial support for people with medically acquired HIV. Lawyers told Lyn the modest amount was due to the fact Martin was a minor with no earning capacity or dependents. "Our family, we were worth something because of the suffering," Lyn says. "But Martin's life actually wasn't worth anything." Red Cross under pressure over donor screening Lawyer Peter Gordon ran the first successful HIV case and subsequent litigation for HIV sufferers around Australia in the early 1990s. Much of the argument focused on the Red Cross, which at the time was a state-based organisation funded by the state and federal governments. "They knew at least by 1982 that HIV was bloodborne … and there were risk groups that should be excluded from being donors because they were more likely to be carrying the virus," Gordon says. "People who shared needles, people who went to tattoo parlours and gay men with more than one partner. And for a period there, they simply didn't do it." "From 1981 to 1984, Australia had the highest transfusion AIDS rate per capita in the Western world," Gordon says. Peter Gordon's colleague, Andrew Grech, led the bulk of the hepatitis C litigation in the 1990s. The plaintiffs argued the Red Cross had failed to exclude high-risk donor groups (such as those with high rates of IV drug use) for a certain period, and that — apart from Queensland — it had failed to introduce a type of surrogate test that could have identified donors likely to be carrying the virus. As the test identified signs of liver inflammation in a donor, rather than the hepatitis C virus specifically (that test wouldn't be invented until 1990), the Red Cross argued it would have led to false positives and a lot of good blood being thrown out, putting the blood supply in danger. While a Senate inquiry would later back the Red Cross's decision, Grech maintains that by the mid-to-late 1980s, "it was known in the medical and scientific literature that hepatitis C was a significant problem" and that the test should have been introduced. The Red Cross never admitted liability, nor did the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories (which at the time was government-owned, not a publicly listed company). However, the lawyers say they were able to establish enough of a liability case against both that the federal and state governments were forced to come to the table and settle. Together, Gordon and Grech secured compensation for about 1,000 people. Lifeblood, formerly the Red Cross, told Australian Story: "While these events led to significant changes in blood banking in Australia and around the world, we cannot forget the harm they caused." "Today, Australia has one of the safest blood supplies in the world, through rigorous donor screening and blood testing." Haemophilia community locked out of hep C compensation Australia's haemophilia community was devastated by contaminated blood. Most were infected — more than 400 died from HIV — and a further 1,350 were exposed to hepatitis C. Of those 1,350, the majority have been unable to access existing state compensation schemes because they cannot identify the exact donor that infected them. "The way our products were manufactured made them a higher risk of infection. They pooled thousands of donations," Tristan Stanley says. "So, to be told you're not eligible for compensation, it's a kick in the guts." The Haemophilia Foundation of Australia told Australian Story they have been advocating for decades for a dedicated financial scheme and proposed a new scheme to the current government a year ago. The discussions are ongoing. 'Facilities would be closed down': Contamination concerns For Tristan, Niel, Tony and Lyn, the desire for compensation is not what drives them. It's their feeling that successive governments have refused to acknowledge or apologise for certain failures that took place. "My medical records show I was treated with old high-risk product 10 months after it was withdrawn," Tristan says. "We also have evidence of people not being told of their diagnosis, putting them at risk of infecting others." Tristan's requests to meet with the federal health minister have been declined. But he's hoping the documents he uncovered in the National Archives of Australia will not be ignored. The 1985 cabinet minutes detail an urgent need to upgrade the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories' blood fractionation facility at Parkville, Victoria, where his blood-clotting products were made. The facility had a world-class reputation. But the cabinet minutes tell a different story. The document says: "If the Department enforced the Commonwealth's own Code of Good Manufacturing Practice the facilities would be closed down immediately as not one area of the facilities complies with the Code." "Failure to upgrade could have grave political implications for the government and the department in the light of current concern about contamination of blood and blood products." The document further details: "… some recent batches of Factor VIII used by haemophiliacs have failed to reach the appropriate sterility standards." "Ever-increasing fears are held by all those who are aware of the state of the facilities that it is only a question of time before there are increasingly frequent and serious occurrences of producing blood factors that are contaminated with diseases such as hepatitis B and AIDS." Tristan also obtained 1988 cabinet minutes that revealed that three years on, there were still "major problems with the existing blood fractionation plant", and that it still "fails to meet current standards of Good Manufacturing Practice by a wide margin". "It shows the government was clearly aware of some serious issues at Commonwealth Serum Laboratories," Tristan says. "It makes me question if safety was a priority." In 1994, CSL Limited was privatised and its new owners were indemnified by the government against any claims arising from contaminated blood products prior to sale. The Department of Health did not respond to Australian Story's questions about the cabinet documents. 'Unfinished business': UK inquiry brings hope In 2024, the UK's Infected Blood Inquiry delivered a damning report after five years of extensive hearings. It found many of the infections in the UK during the 1970s–1990s were preventable and established a broad-brush compensation scheme. For Tristan and his fellow survivors, it reignited their hope that justice was still possible. After taking advice from a key lawyer involved in the UK inquiry, Tristan, together with Tony and Niel, headed to Canberra last month to present their case to politicians. Having received expressions of support from members of each major political party, Tristan is feeling hopeful and determined. "There's unfinished business. I'll keep fighting for as long as it takes," he says. Watch the Australian Story 'Bad Blood' Monday at 8pm (AEST) on ABCTV and ABC iview. Loading...