Corporal punishment was banned in government schools in Victoria in 1983, not 1985. It was banned in schools that were part of the Catholic system in the Archdiocese of Melbourne in 1985, and that did constitute a ban in most Catholic system schools in the state because the state’s population is concentrated around Melbourne, but Victoria does have three other Catholic Diocese – Bathurst, Sandhurst, and Sale, and the 1985 ban did not affect them (all three have since introduced their own bans but in at least one case, this was only quite recently). And by no measure did the recent laws that the article is referring to as applying to all schools come into effect ‘seven years ago’.
The Rules of Corporal Punishment 7
