Education minister distances himself from Kevin Donnelly's praise for hands-on approach of his former PE teacher

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

One of the two men reviewing the national school curriculum, Kevin Donnelly, has recounted the “very effective” approach of his former physical education teacher who took misbehaving students aside and dared them to “throw the first punch”.



In a radio interview about behaviour management, Donnelly voiced support for the use of corporal punishment if the school community was in favour of it.

The education minister, Christopher Pyne, distanced himself from the comments, with a spokesman saying he “did not support a return to corporal punishment in any form” and the curriculum review had “nothing to do with managing student behaviour”.

Donnelly, a former teacher and conservative education commentator who was appointed by the Abbott government to suggest changes to the national school curriculum, aired his views during an interview with Sydney radio station 2UE.

Initially commenting on figures showing an increase in school suspensions in New South Wales, Donnelly said it was important that the classroom did not suffer from disruptive or badly behaved students.

The host, Justin Smith, asked: “What would you describe as the best punishment you’ve come across, even if it is one that has now gone away? I’m not alluding to the strap here; I don’t think that you would ever resort to that. You would never advocate bringing that back, surely?”

Donnelly replied: “Well … ” before pausing and chuckling.

“I grew up in Broadmeadows, sort of a housing commission estate in Melbourne, and we had a Scottish phys ed teacher,” he said.

“Whenever there was any discipline problems he would take the boy behind the shed and say, ‘Well, we can either talk about this or you can throw the first punch.’ That teacher would probably lose his job now but it was very effective. He only had to do it once and the kids were pretty well behaved for the rest of the year.”

Donnelly then sought to step back from the issue.

“I’m not saying corporal punishment; obviously those days are gone.”

But when pressed on whether he still saw merit in corporal punishment, Donnelly confirmed his qualified support. “If the school community is in favour of it then I’ve got no problem and if it’s done properly,” he said.

“There are one or two schools around Australia that I know where it is actually approved of and they do do it. I’m sure they only do it very rarely. But I think we have to get a balance here.”

Donnelly, who is also a senior research fellow at the Australian Catholic University, said schools needed to develop whole-school discipline policies. He recalled the previous use of time-out rooms.

“They [students] loved it because they could get out of class work and relax and meditate for a while. That obviously didn’t work so we’ve just got to get the balance right.”

Pyne appointed Donnelly and the public policy professor Ken Wiltshire to the curriculum review in January. They are due to present a final report to the government by the end of July.



The president of the Australian Education Union, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the “extraordinary” views were unbalanced and did not belong in contemporary schools.

“We've moved well beyond that as a community,” he said. “We cannot condone the use of corporal punishment or in fact any violent act on children.

“The minister must now act. It is unacceptable that such views are being expressed by someone who's been appointed allegedly to look at balance in the national curriculum.”

A spokesman for Pyne said the minister did not support a return to corporal punishment.

“State governments run and operate schools, not the commonwealth, so questions to do with classroom and student management should be directed to them,” he said on Wednesday. “Dr Donnelly’s views are a matter for him.”

The terms of reference for the review focus on the content and development of the national curriculum and contain no request for recommendations on discipline matters.



The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, described Donnelly's comments as "remarkable", saying corporal punishment had been "rejected by many experts for a very long time".

The Greens' spokeswoman on schools, Penny Wright, said Donnelly's endorsement of corporal punishment was unacceptable and he should be sacked from the curriculum review because of his "radical views".

But the Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm was open to the idea. He said schools "should be free to manage their own affairs" and he did not like "a big government bureaucracy telling them how to run their business".

In a 17-page interim report, Donnelly and Wiltshire stressed the importance of a “robust, relevant, independent, balanced and up-to-date curriculum”.