SCHOOLS — MANDATORY CONSENT EDUCATION
621. Ms E.L. HAMILTON to the Minister for Prevention of
Family and Domestic Violence:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to preventing sexual violence.
(1) Can the
minister advise the house how this government is leading the country in
ensuring that Western Australian students and their families have the knowledge
and skills to understand what healthy and respectful relationships look like?
(2) Can the
minister outline to the house why early intervention is important in tackling
sexual violence?
Ms S.F. McGURK
replied:
I thank the
member for her question and her interest in this area.
(1)–(2)
This is a good example of the sort of work
we are getting on with as a government to take opportunities to progress
reform. I particularly acknowledge the Minister for Education and Training for
her work in this regard. I stood with her at
Bob Hawke College last week when she announced that WA would be one of the
first states in the country to mandate
consent education for pre-primary to year 10 in all schools in the state.
Members might be aware of Chanel Contos, a student
from New South Wales and a sexual consent activist. She became known globally in 2021 following an
amazing national and international response to her request for women to report on their sexual assault
experiences. Her petition, which attracted over 44 000 signatures within
a month of its launch, also resulted in about 5 000 stories of sexual assault.
Minister Ellery told the story of Chanel Contos, who I have also met with,
presenting to education ministers across the country about why consent
education should be mandatory in schools. As I said, the announcement has been
that WA will be one of the first states to
mandate that. The draft curriculum is now open for comment and there
will be an opportunity for people to give their feedback. During 2023,
individual schools will have the opportunity to pull together the resources
they want and that curriculum will be mandated in 2024. Of course, it is
age-appropriate and is unashamedly progressive in nature. The concepts are
developmentally relevant and appropriate to students.
This is so important. I cannot
tell members the number of times people say to me that they despair when they hear of high rates of domestic and sexual
violence in our community. We need to respond to that, and we are
responding to it to make sure that we have a good crisis response, that our
courts and our laws are up to the task and that all of our services and
responders are doing what they need to do, but we need to change behaviour. We need to change the underlying
attitudes that result in that violence. Of course, schools are an
important place for that education to occur. It is not about giving students
just the understanding and the tools. As
Minister Ellery described, students will learn how to say ''no'',
but also how to hear ''no''. Some of those underlying attitudes will also be identified. I was
pleased to announce at that press conference the delivery of another 22 schools that will have access to the
Respectful Relationships program. The schools will partner with the
Starick women's refuge to deliver that program to have age-appropriate
resources available to understand respectful relationships and to understand a bit
more about domestic violence.
Sadly, one in five Australians
think that women who say they have been sexually abused are lying or
exaggerating, and more than one in 10 Australians believe it is a woman's
obligation to have sex with her partner even if she does not want to. These are
the sorts of beliefs and attitudes that need to be challenged. That is what we
are doing through mandating consent education and rolling out respectful
relationships training and resources in schools, and a lot of other work that
we are doing. At the end of November will be another 16 Days in WA campaign to
encourage everyone to think about these issues and to take action within their
own families, workplaces, community groups and spheres of influence so that we
can start to address these high rates of sexual and family and domestic
violence.