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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-06 Daily Xml
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GILLES PLAINS PRIMARY SCHOOL

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (15:14): Today, I want to congratulate one of my schools, the Gilles Plains Primary School, for their inspiration and foresight in running a safety expo at their school on 18 September. I am delighted to be hosting a stall at the expo, and I would like to thank my staff and my colleagues' staff for helping me collect a wide range of pamphlets about all matters of issues regarding safety and, in particular, helping to keep our children safe. I know this certainly is a very important issue to the Weatherill government.

In reading some of this material I was reminded of a very special charity, the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, dedicated to helping children live without fear, bullying and violence. The foundation was established in 1997 as a result of the horrific tragedy at Port Arthur in 1996 where 35 people were killed, including two little girls aged six and three, Alannah and Madeline, the daughters of Walter Mikac who, with wisdom and generosity of spirit, started the foundation in their honour. I have had an opportunity to visit that site in Tasmania.

There are 70 schools in South Australia participating in the foundation's Better Buddies program which helps students entering their first year of primary school feel safe and valued and connected to the school community. Designed to help reduce bullying and create a friendly and caring environment in schools, these new pupils are paired with an older buddy to foster value and respect on both sides and across the school years.

Recent research at RMIT University has shown that bullying in schools is a serious problem in Australia as a whole, with about one student in every four reporting an episode of bullying over a period of several weeks and, in some cases, longer. Being bullied can impact on a child's self-esteem, behaviour and their ability to concentrate and perform at school. Often children who are bullied are the ones who demonstrate the most challenging behaviours in the classroom, which of course affects all the children in the class.

It is important that all schools deal with this issue in a caring and responsible manner. The foundation provides support materials for schools and access to activities to foster the program further within the school, with a Better Buddies team being available on the end of a phone during school hours. The foundation also recognises the importance and impact of cyber bullying, but I will deal with that issue perhaps on another occasion.

I was also interested yet horrified to read that the foundation has just given out its 25,000th Buddy Bag to children in emergency accommodation. There were 9,500 bags distributed in 2011. More than 230 agencies, including foster care agencies and refuges, give out these backpacks which are filled with basic essential items so that the children have belongings of their own that help restore a sense of safety and security in their lives. Often, for reasons of safety, these children are taken from their homes, sadly often at night, with little more than the clothes they are wearing, sometimes only the pyjamas they are wearing.

Most of us as parents and grandparents see children as the most important part of our lives but there are children whose lives are surrounded by traumatic events and certainly some horrific, violent circumstances. I want to applaud the work of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation and the staff and parents of the Gilles Plains Primary School because I believe that keeping children safe is paramount and is certainly a concern of everyone in my community.

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