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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4352 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

... this new Framework provides guidelines for dealing with and minimising violence, bullying and all forms of harassment in Canberra's schools.

The Minister needs to be congratulated for that work. The Bill ensures that this will be the case by removing any legitimacy previously given to corporal punishment or even corporal punishment being proposed within a school. Violence, Directions for Australia, the report of the National Committee on Violence, chaired by Professor Duncan Chappell, commented:

To the extent that a society values violence, attaches prestige to violent conduct, or defines violence as normal or legitimate or functional behaviour, the values of individuals within that society will develop accordingly. The use of violence to achieve ends perceived as legitimate is a principle deeply embedded in Australian culture. Violence on the sporting field, in the home and in schools is tolerated by many Australians.

The physical characteristics of a location and the kind of activity occurring there can communicate that violence is more or less acceptable.

There is a need to engender non-violent values in children by helping to ensure that they are brought up in an atmosphere free from violence.

Recommendations 31 and 32 of the National Committee on Violence propose that conflict resolution strategies should be an integral part of teacher training, school and education curricula. I believe that that is important, and that is the sort of issue Mr Stefaniak was referring to in his press release. Recommendation 33 of the committee, which I have already spoken about, is that corporal punishment in all schools, public and private, should be prohibited by law. Recommendation 34 states that educational authorities should develop constructive, non-violent means of social control to replace corporal punishment, and they have been achieved in the ACT. The National Committee on Violence embraced the principle that the state and its agencies should be moral exemplars and that the use of violence as an instrument of school discipline is simply unacceptable.

There are ways of dealing with the problem of violence in schools with a reasonable level of success. The ACT Schools Authority, in its submission to the National Committee on Violence, spoke of the approach to school discipline without violence which focuses on the development of mutual respect between students and teachers through the establishment of friendlier relationships, and said that students must know the rules and agree to them as a result of their participation in the process of establishing them.

To speak specifically about the Schools Authority (Amendment) Bill, I have defined corporal punishment. The main thrust of it is that, within the functions of the Authority, the Authority shall ensure that any disciplinary policy implemented at a school precludes corporal punishment. It also puts a responsibility on a school board to ensure that any disciplinary policy implemented at the school precludes corporal punishment.

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