Dr. David Duffy:

I thank the Senator for her questions. One of the first points I made was that bullying is a damaging experience for students and the wider school community. We certainly believe it a very serious problem.

The Senator referred to the statistics. People are quite surprised that the statistics that I use are from UNICEF, the OECD and a study by Rawdon et al. I am more than happy to give the Senator more details on that study later. I cited international statistics from organisations like UNICEF and the OECD.

On the role of schools, schools definitely have a significant role to play but that is not say others do not also have a role. Of course, bullying is a serious issue.

If I understood the Senator correctly, she asked about the school climate. I believe the vast majority of schools have a very positive climate but that is not to say that individual problems cannot arise. Sometimes they can be quite serious. I am certainly not minimising the issue. There are supports that are essential to schools, for example, NEPS and CAMHS, which are beyond the control of schools.