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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-06-04 Daily Xml
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Cyberbullying

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:47): The extent to which mental health issues permeate through society is staggering. It is estimated that one in four Australians will suffer from anxiety or depression. It is in this context of mental health and, in particular, depression that I want to talk today about cyberbullying. The Australian University Cyberbullying Research Alliance made the following point:

Bullying in itself, is an age-old problem, but has morphed according to the times, the social mores and social context…while much is now known about the nature, prevalence, and impact of conventional bullying that occurs 'offline' in school settings, research is only beginning to help us understand 'online' bullying and the overlap between the two.

The Mental Health Council of Australia has defined cyberbullying as 'wilful and repeated harm through the medium of electronic text'. Despite all this, it is shameful to see a member of this house using social media to parade and grandstand on issues political while bullying members of the government.

This member consistently uses pitiful, childish and churlish names when referring to ministers of the Crown, members of this house and members of the media. That member is none other than the Hon. Rob Lucas, the shadow minister for health and mental health, the shadow minister for suicide prevention, the man who the Leader of the Opposition has entrusted with developing policies to ensure mental health rates in this state are lowered and alleviate the burden of mental health on the state's health facilities.

The Hon. Rob Lucas and his Liberal colleagues may laugh and jeer and say that I am being precious. Politics is a tough game. The Leader of the Government in this place (Hon. Gail Gago), the Treasurer in the other place (Hon. Tom Koutsantonis), you, Mr President, and others, including The Advertiser'sMichelangelo Rucci, are big enough, strong enough and professional enough to take what the Hon. Rob Lucas has to say with a pinch of salt.

But let me make it very clear: the Liberal Party, the Leader of the Opposition and the Hon. Rob Lucas himself need to think very carefully about the message they are sending to young South Australians when the shadow minister for mental health engages in pathetic bullying using social media as the medium. Perhaps we should ask the Hon. Rob Lucas exactly what he thinks the thousands of South Australian students who have suffered the torment inflicted by online bullying think about his antics.

Perhaps we should ask the families and parents of those young people who have had to help their loved ones pick up the pieces. Perhaps we should ask South Australia's health workers, youth workers and counsellors what they think about Rob Lucas's online bullying. Perhaps we should ask Rob Lucas, as a member of this house—let alone as the shadow minister for mental health—whether he feels as though he is setting a positive example, whether he is showing care or empathy for those who have suffered or continue to suffer at the hands of online bullies, whether he is putting the health interests of South Australians above cheap political attacks on Twitter.

This Labor government is committed to the physical and mental health of South Australians. The Hon. Rob Lucas has been in this house for a very long time—some might say too long—but he has also been in opposition for the past 12 years, and it would appear that he has forgotten how to govern. For that very reason, he will spend the next eight years in opposition. Governing is about leadership, not bullying, and leadership is what the Weatherill government continues to provide, especially in the area of mental health.

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