Otago researcher Dr Louise Marsh, who led the New Zealand end of the study, said the results reflected differing philosophies in the two countries.
"Anti-bullying policies are mandatory in Australia, but New Zealand schools are not specifically required by legislation to have them," she said.
The researchers had not been able to establish whether Victorian schools had lower rates of bullying and higher feelings of self-worth among the students than New Zealand schools.
"What I saw as a key difference was that the Australian Government provided help and resources to schools to assist them in developing these policies and deal with bullying incidents," Dr Marsh said.
NZ schools were not taking bullying any less seriously than Australian schools, but they needed more Government assistance in dealing with it.
In a report last year on bullying at Hutt Valley High School, Ombudsman David McGee recommended making anti-bullying programmes compulsory for all schools.
Although this has not been done, Prime Minister John Key has ordered the Education Review Office to develop "indicators of student wellbeing," including bullying.
These are to be published early next year.
Resources for schools, including sample surveys, were published this week on a new website, wellbeingatschool.org.nz.
The Ministry of Education's northern regional manager, Murray Williams, said the website had been designed to help schools, teachers and parents deal with and prevent bullying.
Mr Williams said the ministry continued to work with schools which had come up with alternative ways to help improve behaviour - and therefore reduce the amount of bullying.
Such programmes include restorative justice systems, having peer-mediators monitoring the playground at lunchtimes and other creative ideas.
"I know one school where [the code] is written on the walls and murals around the playground.
"There are messages on different walls and in those areas children see that this is the area that you have to do this - be kind, for example."
