Only in WA?

The West Australian government will seek to change legislation to ban the cane in WA schools.

Education Minister Peter Collier said one small school in Perth still uses corporal punishment.Nollamara Christian Academy is the only school in the state that still uses the disciplinary method.

"No public schools can use corporal punishment and they haven't been able to since the Education Act of 1999 but even before that in the 1980s public schools weren't using the cane, there's a raft of other areas that you can use to discipline a child which are much more effective in terms of the long term benefits for that child.

"In terms of the non-government sector, there's nothing formal that stipulates that a school can't use the cane."

Nollamara Christian Academy uses something it calls a 'paddle' as a form of physical discipline.

It is understood the move to ban corporal punishment in WA completely was partly prompted by the Royal Commission into Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Victorian schools likewise have banned corporal punishment since the 1980s and as part of our registration requirements we have officially minuted that at School Council just recently.