Renmark High School Presentation

Mr WHETSTONE (Chaffey) (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. How does the minister respond to concern raised by members of my community after a presentation at Renmark High School on 22 March? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr WHETSTONE: On 22 March, students at Renmark High School were subjected to a session that was supposed to be dealing with issues of respectful relationships and consent but which, instead, descended into an utterly inappropriate content, including bestiality and incest. A number of students felt so uncomfortable they left the room. At least one family has withdrawn their children from the school. Now I am advised that parental consent was not sought before the session and that no teacher remained in the room for the duty of care.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:56): I thank the member for Chaffey for what is a very important question. I am happy to have the opportunity to address the concerns that he rightfully raises in this place. I won't in any way seek to defend the presentation that was given to those Renmark High School students. It was inappropriate and I have said that publicly. The chief executive of the education department, Martin Westwell, has said that publicly. I will continue to say that and I am happy to be very frank in my comments here in addressing the points that the member for Chaffey has raised.

Mistakes were made, and policies and procedures that are in place for a very important reason were not followed. Chiefly to those were making sure that parents of those year 9 students who were going to be part of the respectful relationships session were advised beforehand so they had the opportunity of withdrawing their children from that session if they wished, and also, as the member for Chaffey alluded to in his explanation, making sure that there was always a teacher in the room when the presentation was taking place, which also did not occur.

The reference to bestiality and incest was inappropriate, of course, and does not have a place in that presentation. I might use this opportunity, however, to point out the context in which they were used. They were used in an attempt to explain some of the horrific vilification that the gay community has received historically where acts of bestiality and incest were likened to sex between same-sex couples. As I understand it, and as has been explained to me, that was the effort that that presenter was making, but it was not done appropriately and it had no place in a presentation to high school students.

There are a number of things we are seeking to do to make sure this can't happen again. The presentation in this case was conducted by a group called Focus One Health, the regional provider of respectful relationships sessions. They are subcontracted by Headspace who do a lot of this work nationally. I understand that it was Focus One who sought the services of the person who gave this inappropriate presentation. Focus One Health have been suspended at this stage.

We have done a lot of investigation around whether or not the person that they approached to actually give the presentation to students has done so in any other of our schools. The advice that I have at this stage, although investigations continue, is that that has not occurred which is a good thing. And we have put out communications which have already made their way out to schools reminding them about the obligations that they have to follow the very important policies and procedures that are in place around making sure parents are notified when these sessions are going to occur, to give them the ability to withdraw their child if that is what they want, and making sure that staff are present in the room at all times.

They are some of the steps that we have taken at this stage, but I want to reassure the member for Chaffey and all other members of this place that I am not in any way seeking to defend what happened, but what we are doing is making sure we take the strongest available course of action that is available to me and the chief executive of the education department to make sure that in the future polices and procedures are followed and this kind of thing cannot actually happen again.