STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator COX (Western Australia) (13:59): Today I also take part in the 2025 Raise Our Voice in Parliament initiative, and I would like to read into the Hansard a message from Darlene, who's 12 years old: 'As the saying goes, we who have means and a voice must use them to help those who have neither. Today I want to speak about a challenge that far too many young Australians are enduring, and it's cyberbullying.

Did you know that 53 per cent of young Australians experience cyberbullying, and only 21 per cent ever find the courage to report it? In 2023 alone, in Queensland schools, they recorded 138,300 incidents of bullying. Words on a screen can wound as sharply as stones hurled at a heart.

The injuries may be invisible but the pain no less profound. Cyberbullying spreads like wildfire. A single cruel remark can be reposted, screenshotted and echoed until escape feels impossible.

Yet, like fire, it cannot survive without fuel. If we refuse to feed it, we can extinguish it.' The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Cox. The time has now expired.