This article contains references to sexual assault.
About one year ago, Chanel Contos asked her Instagram followers if they or someone close to them had been sexually assaulted when they were at school.
Within 24 hours, over 200 people replied "yes".
The testimonies kept coming - and would reach over 6,700 - prompting Ms Contos to launch a petition calling for more holistic and earlier consent education in Australian schools that has received more than 44,700 signatures.
Now, she is one step closer to her goal, after education ministers from around the country unanimously agreed consent should be included in the national curriculum from foundation until Year 10.
It’s been lauded as an “important milestone” by experts who have long worked in the field of relationships and sexuality education (RSE). But they and Ms Contos agree much more needs to be done to implement improved education in schools across the country.
Making consent education ‘a national priority’
Ms Contos is the first to acknowledge her work is not “revolutionary”. She attributes the success of her "Teach Us Consent" campaign so far to catapulting the issue into a “national priority”.
“This campaign is simply built off the work people around the world and around Australia, especially women of colour, have been doing for decades,” she said.
“Consent education is not revolutionary … But I think it really was the thousands of people who posted their testimony simultaneously that catapulted it into a priority for the government.
“And of course, [there were] the interactions with other women working in this space, and the dominating discourse around sexual assault and respect.”
Honorary Professor Deborah Ollis, from Deakin University, has worked in the field for more than three decades - as a secondary school teacher, policy officer, curriculum writer and researcher.
She says consent education has been an integral part of RSE for more than four decades, but that this has in more recent years “fallen off the agenda”.
“There have been resources on consent in Commonwealth and state-funded sexuality education resources for the last 30 years,” she says.
“I think what we’ve seen now, which is wonderful, is some activism by young people, and young women, to raise the issue again, and remind us about how important addressing issues around sexual consent is, and I think that’s absolutely imperative.”
Katrina Marson is a criminal lawyer who has researched relationships and sexuality education both in Australia and overseas. She is also the lead for primary prevention at Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA).
Ms Marson said the community is now recognising the connection between education, the protection against sexual violence and the safeguarding of sexual wellbeing.
“That’s a really positive thing. It’s not something that I think has been widely understood or recognised as important,” she says.
“But in the past 18 months or so, we have really seen an increased understanding at the broader community level of the importance of this education and what it can achieve.”
Through Ms Contos’ petition, she said young people drew that connection “between the deficiency in their education and their experiences of sexual violence and harassment”.
“Hearing that in the thousands was very compelling for the community, and it garnered a lot of media attention,” she said.
“We’ve seen a few moments in Australian history where we’ve talked about this. But it was something about the petition and just the numbers of young people coming forward - and that getting so much media spotlight - that meant the community became newly alive to the issue.”
Professor Ollis agreed Ms Contos’ work has amplified the voices of young people - and made them public.
“These testimonials are rich insights into where young people are at,” she said.
“And what has been wonderful about Chanel’s work is that it has become very public and we’ve had politicians and education departments listen to those voices.”
What will this unanimous decision mean?
Ms Marson said the delivery of relationships and sexuality education in Australia - of which consent is one part - is largely “inconsistent” across jurisdictions.
“There are certainly jurisdictions and schools within them that are doing better than others. But the reality is no young Australian can be guaranteed comprehensive relationships and sexuality education. It will depend on the jurisdiction they're in, the school they go to and the teacher that they have,” she said.
Ms Marson said some states and territories take on the national curriculum, while others are “guided” by it.
Sexuality and consent education is part of the Victorian Curriculum, mandated for government and Catholic schools, while all NSW students are taught about consent as part of its curriculum. Queensland launched a review of consent education in its state, independent and Catholic schools last year.
She said she understands that traditional ideas of sex education have always been part of the national curriculum, but recent developments would increase discussions about consent and how much that features at different age levels.
Following a meeting with state education ministers on a new national curriculum last month, Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert said there is “wide and unanimous agreement from all jurisdictions about including [that] consent-based education within the curriculum under health and physical education”.
He said all ministers will return in April to go through that curriculum.
In practice, Ms Contos said this will mean age-appropriate consent education will be mandated in the Australian curriculum from foundation level to Year 10. She said each state and territory will update their state curriculums, while independent schools will refer to the national curriculum as a “minimum standard”.
“That starts off being very core concepts of consent, so asking for permission, denying permission, help-seeking strategies for any sort of harassment or inappropriate behaviour,” she said.
“As students get older, the curriculum will start to introduce to them concepts of gender stereotypes, and harmful power imbalances in our community, and what they might look like in different situations and scenarios.
“That means by the time children reach high school, and sexual consent is taught to them in a very legal sense - and also from the perspective of empathy and respect - that they have these foundations ideas they can build on to ensure that makes sense to them.”
Experts say implementation is key
But Ms Marson and Professor Ollis say putting consent in the national curriculum is just one step towards delivering effective RSE, and the focus must turn to implementation.
“What we need to understand about RSE is that it is a nuanced story of expertise, oversight and implementation. It’s not just a matter of putting consent in the national curriculum; there’s a lot more to it,” Ms Marson said.
“And that [implementation] is the next stage we need to focus on, and not see this important milestone … as some kind of finish line.”
The federal government has since announced a $189 million package over five years to strengthen prevention and early intervention in family, domestic and sexual violence. It says the package has a strong focus on consent, including $32 million for a consent campaign focusing on young people aged 12 and older and their parents.
“We are making sure that crucial messages about consent are heard in every home around Australia to ensure we are all empowered to have conversations with young people, family and friends about this important issue,” Minister for Women’s Safety Anne Ruston said.
The government says more than $8 million of its $104 million investment to national primary prevention organisation Our Watch will go towards developing resources with Ms Contos' organisation, Teach Us Consent.
“I feel it's really important to have a specialised body that's engaged with using experts to create materials adequate for this. And of course, we'll be curating materials and consulting with other people in the sector, and making sure that these are best-practice,” she said.
The government has allocated $5 million towards a survey of secondary school-age students on issues related to consent, to be undertaken by National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollands and Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. Ms Contos will be a special advisor.
“This survey of secondary school students will provide benchmark data to gauge the impact of consent education in the revised Australian Curriculum, which is expected to be rolled out nationally from 2023, subject to ministerial approval,” the Australian Human Rights Commission said.
Ms Contos said while there is significant research in this space, “we’re really missing a gap in peer-to-peer perpetrated data in those early teen years”.
But Ms Marson said she is concerned this might only work to “reinvent the wheel”.
“We have some brilliant resources and work out there… but I do have a concern that we’re just reinventing the wheel with precious funds that could be put towards something else,” she said.
She said the announcement has some promising aspects, such as a parent-focused campaign, but is mostly concerned it is a “missed opportunity”.
Professor Ollis agrees.
“The resources are there, that focus on gender and power, that focus on consent … it’s actually about supporting schools and teachers to be able to implement this - and across sectors, not just in government schools.”
Professor Ollis helped to develop Victoria’s Respectful Relationships Education program, which became a core component of the state curriculum from foundation to year 12.
It was mandated to be rolled out in all government schools after the 2015 Royal Commission into Family Violence, and also offered to non-government schools.
“Victoria has a very comprehensive approach to this work, in that it is funding schools to implement respectful relationships - and consent is part of that,” she said.
“You have a workforce of project leaders and personnel in offices, some which come from the non-government sector, who are providing support for schools and teachers to implement evidence-based curriculum to build the skills, understanding and commitment to do this work,” she said.
It’s an approach that appears to form the focus of the Opposition’s $77 million policy pledge, which would “make sure we put money into teachers getting the training and support they need to deliver this curriculum in the classroom,” Labor's education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek told ABC radio.
“Their policy does seem to tap into that [implementation],” Ms Marson said. “But this isn’t about which political party it comes from - my only interest is in the successful implementation to ensure universal access, that every kid is guaranteed comprehensive RSE.”
Ultimately, Ms Marson wants to ensure the issue does not leave the national spotlight.
“I am hopeful that the pressure can stay on for us to get to the next stage of implementation. And I hope it remains a national priority. I do.”
While she sees this milestone as a “good first step”, Ms Contos agrees there is a long road ahead.
“We need to see adequate implementation of consent education. We need teacher training, we need educational resources, we need trauma-informed practice for a lot of these things,” she said.
“We need whole-school approaches to try to not just reduce violence, but also turn towards an ideal of positive intimacy for all Australians. So, there's lots and lots to be done."
Where we can do better
Looking back on 2021, Ms Contos said she feels overwhelming gratitude for everyone involved in her campaign.
She said she hopes gender equality continues to be at the forefront of issues across politics, workplaces and schools.
“I think in 2021, we saw a cultural shift in Australia where we started to lift the taboo on conversations about gender-based violence, and I think we created a society where it’s more normalised to hold people to account, to be held accountable, to apologise, reflect, move forward and do better,” she said.
“And I’m hoping that in 2022, not only do we maintain that momentum, but it just becomes the norm for gender equality to be at the forefront of political issues, workplace issues, school issues - everything.”
She acknowledges last year saw a lack of diversity in voices.
“Women of colour, or First Nations, women, experience levels of sexual assault and violence and discrimination extremely disproportionately, and I feel like that was omitted from the conversation this year which I hope we do better to do in 2022.”
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit . In an emergency, call 000.
