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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (23 May) . . Page.. 1666 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

A number of other studies previously had already highlighted various issues, but the sad thing was to find so little action being taken on them. There was little action on early intervention for students with behavioural problems; the provision of family support programs; aspects of the withdrawal unit for primary students with behavioural problems; alternative education programs for young people who have not completed high school or who are at risk of not completing high school; the establishment of a child development unit; and training and support for teachers. These were all issues, as raised by Kerrie, that we were looking at. We need to make sure that we keep these in the forefront of our minds.

Violence in schools is an old problem, a continuing problem, and we need to make a concerted effort to resolve the issues. If we do not address this, if we do not provide essential assistance to schools and families and work towards making the ACT a non-violent community, it will be a loss for all of us, and a loss for our future. Children who cannot get an education, who are out of the system because of expulsion or the lack of relevance of the school curriculum to them at that time, or who have low esteem, will not be able to grow into active and useful members of the community. That will cause additional health costs and additional costs for income support.

The report lists many forms of violence. There is no need to discuss each of those now, but we took a very broad view of violence. We were looking at a whole range of behaviours within schools. We noted that boys tended to be more physical in the expression of violence, while girls are more likely to use verbal abuse; but the outcomes are the same. It affects both the perpetrator and the victim. It also partly affects the community as a whole if we allow such things to go on without notice, without taking some care to address them.

If children are not able to feel comfortable and safe, they are less likely to learn and to stay connected to the school community and the community as a whole. Fear of violence will also affect other children in the school. Violence also affects teachers and their ability to teach effectively, and that, as I said before, will lead to additional costs in the future. It was also noted by the committee that it was unfortunate that for some children schools are safer places than their own homes. We need to recognise this and to address this problem as well in a holistic way of looking at violence in the community.

A number of other studies show that many factors influence the development of violent behaviour. The report mentioned last week, Violence - Directions for Australia, was prepared by the National Committee on Violence in 1990. This report raised a number of factors that influence the development of violent behaviour, and it talked about the influence of the family, cultural influences, personality, substance abuse, biological factors, media influences and peers and schooling. It particularly emphasised the role of the family in the development of aggressive behaviour and I think that is something we must remember. We cannot just concentrate on school; we have to look at families and at the whole community and get it working in an integrated way.

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