Mr THOMAS GEORGE (Lismore) [1.50 p.m.]: Recently I produced a booklet, "Bullying", to help our community—adults and children, parents and grandparents, carers, co-workers, teachers, mates, and all others who are affected—recognise bullying and to help those who need help. The booklet provides handy tips on how to overcome bullying and includes a list of contact numbers. This human rights issue can be dealt with only by working together as a community to stamp out bullying in all of its nasty forms. I was very pleased to join Sue Short, the editor of our local newspaper, the Northern Star, and Lismore City Council in organising a forum to reiterate to the community the importance of respect and tolerance for all people.

Bullying is not isolated to a specific group: it can affect people at any stage of life, from youth to elderly years. For children, it can often begin at school, and for some of our children life at school can be unnecessarily hard. Bullying is one of the things that can make life at school, and potentially even life itself, unbearable. Bullying poses a dangerous threat to children's mental and physical wellbeing. Although it is very difficult to define and generalise the causes of bullying, bullies often target difference. Whatever their motivation, bullies are generally children who want to inflict pain and hurt their peers.

Everyone has a right to feel safe and unthreatened in their environment. Our children certainly have every right to feel safe at school. Therefore, our schools should have strict policies in place to address verbal and physical harassment. Incidents that have been related to me indicate that an anti-bullying message needs to be reinforced at schools and that parents should be afforded support when they approach the school to discuss bullying incidents or tactics. When we as a community allow abuses of power such as bullying to continue, bullying can become a fatal form of violence. That is why the very sad death of Alex Wildman of Lismore in July 2008 must serve as an inspiration for our community and ensure that that form of abuse of power will no longer go unnoticed. Experiences of that type have made me determined to work with communities to improve society's response to this social issue.

Bullying at home, in the workplace, or at school is totally unacceptable. It simply cannot be tolerated. The community and community leaders must recognise the symptoms of bullying. We must ensure that victims have access to appropriate professional assistance to prevent further mental and physical damage. Victims need to know that they are supported, and will continue to be supported, when speaking out about their experience as a victim of bullying. Not only should we support and assist those who are subject to bullying, but also we need to provide assistance to the bullies. Bullies should be given the skills to identify that their behaviour is inappropriate and that their actions constitute bullying behaviour. They need to know that that type of behaviour will not be tolerated and that the consequences of their behaviour will be severe. Hopefully our work and intervention at this stage will be able to save a number of potential victims from significant grief.

At the forum the welcome to country was given by Aunty Hazel Rhodes, and the forum was opened jointly by the Mayor of Lismore, Jenny Dowell, and me. The forum's facilitator was Mark Jewell, and presenters included Professor Anne Graham of the Southern Cross University; Brad Ward of the North Coast Area Health Service; Inspector Steve Clarke; Mark Gasson from the Uncle program; Greg Telford from Rekindling Spirit; Dr Jennifer Nielsen of the Southern Cross University; and Dr Lyn Guard from the Department of Education and Training. The forum made people realise that, as a community, we need to be conscious of what is happening in schools, the workplace and other places, and that we should provide support for people who are being unfairly targeted by bullies.

Even children isolating their mates is a form of bullying. We now have cyber bullying and all different types of bullying. I was honoured and proud to be part of the forum. Bullying is commonplace, but people need to be very conscious of its disastrous effects. The bullying incident in Lismore last year has had an effect on many schools in the area and on many members of the community. Hopefully forums such as the one that was held recently in Lismore will assist in bringing bullying out into the open so that remedies may be discussed.