Mr. John Curtis:

It has had significant implications for us. As a society, we have still not found our feet with the implications of the digital age. In the cases that we are advising our schools on now, the majority relate to cyberbullying or events that have occurred online. They can be very difficult for us to handle. We all have to upskill ourselves to deal with them. We also need some external help. We made a submission on the online safety Bill. We asked that an online safety commissioner be appointed to help us because we struggle on occasion to deal with the complexity of some of the issues we are facing now.

The 2013 circular and the bullying guidelines that were then published were good and the report that preceded the guidelines in January 2013 was thorough. Perhaps we need not reinvent the wheel too much in the context of the existing documentation. However, we need to consider how cyber issues have manifested and made matters more difficult for us.

There also needs to be some attention given to bullying issues, as 2013 is a long time ago now. School communities, the Government and the Department need to put a spotlight on the matter, make revisions and see what we can do better in a number of areas.