School Violence and Bullying

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:43): Thank you, sir. I would love to know what that bet was with Tom Koutsantonis, but we will find out one day, I am sure. I rise today to talk about something that is very important, and I am sure all members of this chamber would agree, and that is schoolyard bullying, which has been brought to my attention by a number of constituents in recent times. I can imagine little that would be more soul destroying than that happening to your own child. As a father myself I cannot imagine the difficulties that would be faced by parents in that circumstance, not to mention the negative impact on the child and the potential for long-term damage to be done, both emotionally and potentially physically depending on the type of bullying we are talking about.

This is a matter of grave importance. It is something that Family First urges the government to have a very close look at. I understand the government has a series of programs and we are aware of those programs, having had a look at them closely on a number of different occasions through various constituents that have come forward with the specific details of their individual cases. The bottom line, however you want to word it, is that it is not working. That is not really a criticism of the government, to be frank, because it is a difficult area, but it is something that deserves greater focus and greater attention.

There have been individual circumstances where parents have come to my office—and I am sure all members have encountered similar situations over their time in parliament if they have been here for any stretch of time—regarding really difficult situations, where children have ended up moving schools and where parents have felt inadequate because they were not able to protect their own child, which I would think is one of the most primary instincts of being a parent.

It is a difficult situation that deserves certainly more focus from the government, and I think it is even worthy of cabinet discussion. It is the sort of thing that needs to be handled at the top level in a very serious and focused way, and then cabinet can send a message that this is something that will not be tolerated under any circumstances. That sort of message filters down through departments, then through schools and, ultimately, to the parent and, ideally, the child level. It is always going to be a problem, and I am not suggesting it is any worse under this government than it would be under any other government. I do not know that, but what I do know is that it is something that is very serious and that we are seeing far too much of it.

Not surprisingly, the American Psychological Association reports that physical and verbal bullying can be a very serious problem for children. I have various studies that reference the harm done over even short periods of bullying. It is quite surprising how substantial the impact can be. I think it is one of those things that we may tend to trivialise a little bit.

The truth is that our generation—that is, those of us in the chamber who are over 40, and I think that probably includes all of us except the Hon. Ms Vincent, of course, but she is not in the chamber at the moment so I was somewhat correct—used to laugh it off a little bit and it was seen as less of an issue, but I think those days are well and truly gone. I have had parents in my office and it has really changed them for the worse. As a parliament, and certainly as a government, we have a responsibility in this place, but especially the government has a responsibility to act on this once and for all.

A study undertaken in 2006 found that children who were rejected by their peers, which could be a simple form of bullying—that is, 'You are not playing with us; we're not talking to you' or whatever it may be—were more likely to withdraw from classroom activities and, in fact, were more likely to try to avoid school altogether. In some cases, they went on to self-harming behaviour and even, in some extreme cases, attempts at and even successful suicide.

This is a serious matter, and the point of my matter of interest today is to highlight how significant it is. It deserves the attention of this chamber. I think we can all be guilty of viewing these things as fairly trivial at times, but it is not trivial and it deserves parliamentary focus, it deserves government focus, and I believe it deserves cabinet focus.