Melbourne
It's humbling to be among people who have got such a strong personal connection to the fight against bullying and I really can't imagine how many of you bear the losses that you have, the bravery, the courage, it just takes my breath away.
But what is so inspirational is that you've brought part of that, part of that sense of loss, that bravery, that courage and you've challenged it into this urgent and inspiring national initiative.
It's a great tribute to all of you that that energy has been brought to this place.
And we need that energy because in Australia in 2013 there are still too many children whose school days are filled with fear and dread instead of laughter and play and I think that and the images of that were brought very powerfully through to us as we listened to the song and saw those images.
As well as too many children spending their days with that fear and dread, there are too many apprentices who really just can't face another day of humiliation at the workplace, too many employees who come home from work feeling worthless and feeling defeated and worst of all, there are those who never come home.
Those for whom suicide seems like the only way out, the only escape from physical and psychological torment - from the physical and psychological torment that is bullying.
Last year more than 2,500 Australians committed suicide, more than 450 were children.
Bullying was identified as a factor in 80 per cent of these deaths.
Now the death of any Australian, particularly any young Australian is a tragedy and we're here today because we know that this should no longer stand; that we have to do something about it.
I'm here to tell you that as a Government we're very determined to join with you in the fight against bullying and I'm very delighted that we will be working together with the Bully Free Foundation as part of the dedicated and passionate fight against bullying.
We need the kind of cooperation that the Bully Free Australia Foundation represents, the kind of cooperation that brings people together across sectors, states and agencies - a mix, and a powerful one, of families, of politicians, of police officers, of lawyers and other professionals all working for the common goal of ending bullying.
In recognition of the power of bringing people together in 2012 we held the first ever national anti-bullying forum.
That brought teachers, parents and young people together to discuss what needed to be done.
We've channelled that and we've introduced a national safe school framework that requires every school in Australia to have an anti-bullying strategy.
But, we've got to keep working together to find the new and creative solutions because bullies and bullying has evolved.
The spread of texting and social media means that for so many people it feels like there's no safe space anymore.
Gone are the days when you could leave the playground or leave work, go to your home, shut the door and fell like safety was there around you.
Instead, because of the penetration of social media the fact that a jibe can now be instantly seen by so many, victims can feel harassed 24 hours a day.
Les Twentyman put it very powerfully when he said in the hands of a bully an ordinary smart phone can be a weapon of mass destruction.
Two years ago I said the major problem we face was the technology had run ahead of the existing systems, rules and ethics required to combat bullying.
Today, as Bully Free Australia officially opens its doors, I'm pleased to say that we are catching up.
Yesterday the Minister for Schools, Peter Garrett, launched the Safe Schools Hub, a central site to support a suite of dynamic online resources for school leaders, teachers, specialist staff, parents and students and this will help all of them enabling their student community to be a safer place.
In January this year I launched Be Cyberwise, an online learning program; a program that will teach more than 600,000 children all around the nation how to deal with the risks of the digital age.
This, together with the protocol the Government has negotiated with Facebook, Google, YouTube, Yahoo! and Microsoft, makes a new cooperative approach a reality to the problem of online bullying.
There's more to do but at least I feel now like we are meeting cyber bullying on its ground.
We are also tackling bullying in the workplace as Minister Shorten has outlined.
The costs of this is truly amazing - gobsmacking.
The Productivity Commission estimates that workplace bullying costs the Australian economy each year between $6 billion and $36 billion - an amazing cost.
And those costs of lost productivity are only eclipsed by the enormous personal costs of workplace bullying.
Over 300 individuals and organisations gave evidence to the inquiry we had about the devastating effects of workplace bullying on victims, their families, their colleagues and their employers.
That means, as Minister Shorten has said, that next week we will act.
We will introduce into the House of Representatives a new provision which means that from 1 July this year an individual who has been bullied at work will be able to go to the Fair Work Commission and have that conduct stopped.
This new pathway will allow people to have their concerns addressed quickly and affordably with the focus on restoring relationships and preventing bullying - simply stopping the problem so that it doesn't go so far and doesn't hurt people in the way that we've heard the stories today.
Friends, there's always more to do.
There's action now in schools, there's action now for workplaces, we actually had our school children yesterday out for the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence and we had school kids around the nation rallying to the catch cry, bullying, no way.
Well that's a simple message and it's a heartfelt one and if we can ask our school kids around the country to march through the day saying bullying, no way, then I think we can ask ourselves to do the same.
And that's what we are doing today, gathering to say as a nation bullying, no way.
And when I look out at this gathering I know I'm looking out at the proof that we are going to succeed in this struggle.
Because it's your courage and your determination - your determination to keep working and to not rest until success is assured that it's going to get us there.
So it truly is a very great honour for me to be here and to declare the headquarters of the Bully Free Australia Foundation officially open and I know we are all going to be truly amazed by the results of the work that happens from this place.
Thank you very much.