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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-23 Daily Xml
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STATUTES AMENDMENT (ANTI-BULLYING) BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:33): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 and the Intervention Orders (Prevention of Abuse) Act 2009. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (10:33): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is also referred to as the anti-bullying bill. Members may ask why we need something like this—what I call a 'lighthouse bill'—which is specifically targeted against bullying. Why do we need it, when some people would say, 'Well, if you look in some legislation, it could possibly be dealt with under the umbrella, for example, of workplace safety'? My view is that this issue is so significant that it needs the lighthouse type approach, where it is quite clear to everyone in the community—and my bill applies anywhere: schools, workplace, anywhere—that you need to send a clear message that bullying is not acceptable and will be dealt with.

From my own experience, and I am not going to name the specific locations, for obvious reasons, but I can say that at a private school within the metropolitan area, a lad hanged himself as a result of bullying, following references to him being gay, and not having a girlfriend, and this lad who was the son of a police officer, hanged himself, took his life.

I have had another case more recently, where a woman working at a public hospital was a whistleblower. When she went to the management to allege that people were stealing from the public hospital, she was subjected to horrendous bullying. It got to the point where she almost took her life. It was only through the intervention of some specialist people—psychologists and so on—that was prevented from happening.

I have had many other people come to me—people in community groups right across the board—and I am aware of situations in schools as well. I believe that bullying is in the nature of humans—sadly, a bit like racism. I do not think we will ever eradicate bullying because there will always be some person (or persons) who wants to assert authority over others.

What are the definitions of bullying? The simple definition is 'some deliberate act that is designed to cause mental or physical harm'. I point out to members (I am sure they all received a copy yesterday, which was fortuitous) a report entitled 'School bullying: A survey of federal, state and territory policies', authored by Dr Robert G. Richardson, Research Officer, and produced by our Parliament Research Library.

Whilst it is focusing on only a part of what my bill deals with, I think this sort of report is an example of the excellent work that comes out of our Parliament Research Library, and I commend that report to members. As I have said, it is specifically focused on the educational setting. In that report, in the glossary, it states:

Bullying is defined...as:

Repeated verbal, physical, social or psychological behaviour that is harmful and involves the misuse of power by an individual or group towards one or more persons...

Bullying can involve humiliation, domination, intimidation, victimisation and all forms of harassment including that based on sex, race, disability, homosexuality or transgender.

Furthermore, Dr Richardson goes on to define cyber bullying, which is often referred to these days, and he cites the definition of cyber bullying as encompassing a variety of behaviours, including:

Pranking, (i.e. hang-up calls), sending insulting text messages, publishing someone's private information, creating hate sites or implementing social exclusion campaigns in social networking sites.

As I said earlier, some members would say, 'Why do we need a specialised bill?' I do not believe that the current system is working in the way it should. I acknowledge that a lot of government agencies, private agencies and occupational health arrangements do make reference to some behaviours that could be classified as bullying, but I do not believe the system is working in the way it should.

I think there needs to be appropriate penalties for the worst type of bullying, and I refer members to the situation that occurred in Victoria involving the tragic death of 19-year-old Brodie Panlock, who took her own life after she was relentlessly bullied. The Victorian government has moved to introduce legislation, and I think we should be following suit here.

The bill that is introduced here amends the Criminal Law Consolidation Act relating to things such as unlawful stalking, and it also covers a range of related behaviours. It is quite a simple bill. It is a very short bill, but I think it will help. If the government or any member feels that it can be improved, as we all know, it can be amended.

In the report of Dr Richardson, he refers to the fact that, back in April this year I think, the Attorney-General, the Hon. John Rau, proposed that new laws be introduced to deal with cyber bullies who engineer, film and post online violent and humiliating images of other people without their consent. He says here, referring to a statement of the Attorney, that the Attorney:

...envisages that potentially 'severe' penalties could apply in cases where an image was originally taken with the person's consent, but was then later broadcast (after a relationship break-up, for instance) with the intent of demeaning or damaging them.

We have heard a lot of references to bullying in schools, particularly on talkback radio. In the same report, page 17, he states:

...the Minister for Education [the Hon] Jay Weatherill has acknowledged that reports of students being threatened with violence or being subjected to violent assaults have increased. Indeed, recent bullying incidents have prompted Minister Weatherill to initiate an independent review of existing policies and practices. Former Education Department head Mr Bill Cossey has been appointed to undertake the review and, in light of a particularly violent Northern suburbs bullying incident, will pay close attention to 'the reporting relationships between schools and education authorities and between schools and police.'

This is a particular focus on bullying as it relates to schools. My bill applies across the community, it is not limited to schools, and I do not think it should be limited to schools. It needs to apply in all areas of society because bullying is obviously not confined to the school environment.

I do not think I need to go into anymore detail. I have plenty of examples of people who have been subjected to bullying. We have been contacted by a transgender person, someone who was a practice manager in a medical centre, who was bullied. We have been contacted by someone who worked, probably as a volunteer, in a senior citizens club, Mrs G, who had been allegedly bullied.

Another person was bullied at her workplace at a supermarket. There was Mrs S who was a manager at a nursing home. Mrs N, who was involved in a victim support group, had to step down because of bullying. There is another recent victim of bullying, allegedly, in the Public Service. It goes on and on.

I had a constituent who used to speak to me nearly every weekend when I was walking around the local shopping centre where my office is who said that he was continually bullied at work and nothing was done about it. He reported it to the human resources people and he reported it to the manager. He was constantly called a 'poofter' and things like that.

I was about to take the matter further but, fortunately for him, the big boss of the company came down from Sydney and did a walk around of the factory, and warehouse, and asked the staff how they were going. This chap said, 'I love my job, except I don't like the bullying'. He asked what he had done about it, and within a week the alleged bully had gone. So, that was remedied.

What I would like to see is penalties ranging from the lowest element of dealing with this, which would be counselling, then a more serious fine and the ultimate would be that, where a person's deliberate behaviour results in someone taking their life, as happened in that case in Melbourne or here at a school, that there should be an even heavier sanction.

I think the very fact that for the worst cases, resulting in a loss of life, there could be a gaol penalty, would send a very clear message that the community does not want to tolerate this sort of behaviour and that we should not tolerate it.

So, I commend the bill to members. As I say, if members do not believe that it is quite the right formula, then please, as you have the absolute right to do, seek to amend it and improve it. However, I think that we need to deal with a situation which is all too frequently common in our society and which has devastating consequences for people. Having a lighthouse bill, or act, that makes it clear that bullying will not be tolerated, I think, will send a very clear message to the community. I commend the bill to the house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.

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