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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-12-01 Daily Xml
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Motions

Sexual Consent Education

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (22:12): I move:

That this council—

1. Notes the importance sexual education has on the development of children and young people;

2. Recognises that sexual consent education is an imperative component to education for South Australian students;

3. Recognises the 39,085 signatures and 3,779 testimonies on the Petition for Consent to be Included in Australian Schools' Sex Education Earlier created by Chanel Contos; and

4. Calls on the government to ensure all children and young people have access to sexual consent education throughout their schooling.

The women's movement in Australia is back in true fighting form. Women across the country have stood up against their rapists, abusers and misogynists. Women have confronted those elements of the system that oppress, and women and allies have filled the streets in protest, saying enough is enough. Women have looked at decision-makers square in the face and demanded more to be done.

Young people and students also joined in the groundswell, making it known that they are also not immune to these issues. Not only did they call out the abhorrent behaviour within their schools and the experiences they had but they created a massive campaign and movement for greater sex education with focus on sexual consent.

Chanel Contos, originally a Sydneysider now living in London, began her campaign to bring awareness to sexual assault within schools by sharing content on her Instagram. From sharing her story, Chanel received countless replies from women and young people who had similar experiences.

This compelled her to launch a petition, gathering signatures and testimonies. When I put this motion to the council, the petition had reached 39,085 signatures. Today, there are over 44,500, and with it nearly 7,000 testimonies of sexual assault, coercive control, consent, slut-shaming and misogyny that have occurred within schools across Australia.

I want to share two testimonies with the chamber. Many shared their personal stories with assault and unwanted sexual advances, such as this woman, who said:

I was assaulted many times by a boy I know who went to Catholic boys' schools in Perth for his entire high school career. These assaults started when I was about 11 years old. I did not realise what happened was a sexual assault until years later because the sex education I got at my Catholic all girls high school was minimal and we were never taught what an assault could look like. We were only told that sex was for after marriage with our husbands. The trauma from that time was long reaching and impacted my ability to have trusting relationships for decades. I believe it contributed towards my anxiety disorder.

Others shared their experiences with the education system, many similar to this account:

We never received any teaching on consent education or on positive and pleasurable sex education. I would have really benefited from any form of education in that form.

These are just two of thousands shared online. The Commissioner for Children and Young People released a report this year, titled Sex Education in South Australia. The testimonies given on the petition and the data collected by the commissioner are strikingly similar. Almost half of girls aged 16 to 17 years and almost a third of boys said they had experienced some form of unwanted sexual behaviour, and 28 per cent of young people reported having had unwanted sex. Within this figure, female students were twice as likely as male students to experience this.

From the data collected, the commissioner made several recommendations, including that children and young people want relationships and sexual health education in schools to include years 11 and 12, and that relationship and sexual health education must be embedded into education and the ability for parents to withdraw their child or children from these lessons removed.

Children and young people are worried that strategies around sexual health are overtly focused on protecting children from adults who might do harm rather than keeping them safe in their interactions with each other. We must ensure that all children have access to sexual health education. This means young people who are vulnerable to missing out on school-based relationship and sexual health education are supported through community-based programs.

Sexual health education should be consistently applied across sectors and schools, ensuring direct conflicts with moral, cultural or religious values are removed from sex education to ensure children are receiving meaningful education and not just classes revolving around the biology of sexual organs. We must ensure that those who are sexually or gender diverse do not continue to be invisible in the classroom and, lastly, include students in the design of sexual health education.

These findings are not unusual, nor are they inconsistent with other studies done in the area of sex education within South Australia. 'It is not all about sex', a report done by Bruce Johnson, Lyn Harrison, Deb Ollis, Jane Flentje, Peter Arnold and Clare Bartholomaeus in 2016, foreshadowed the findings in the Commissioner for Children and Young People's report.

The study surveyed over 860 South Australian students about their views on the school-based sexuality and relationship education and asked in what way the program could be improved. Overall, students felt their needs were not being met by sexual education they were offered. Students expressed their desire for less repetition of the biological aspects of human sexuality and more explicit and accurate information about gender diversity, violence in relationships, intimacy, sexual pleasure and love.

Other specific recommendations were made around teaching and learning activities, student outcomes and understanding of the content presented to students, very similar to the Commissioner for Children and Young People's report. However, the inconsistency of teaching and the application of sexual health and education classes was noted as one of the biggest barriers to young people receiving adequate sexual education. This is consistent with SHINE SA's findings. Through its own review of their relationship and sexual health education program, not all schools are participating fully in the program, even though they are enrolled to do so.

SHINE SA designs the state's relationship and sexual health curriculum. It aligns the Australian curriculum and the South Australian Department for Education's Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum. The program provides training for educators to deliver the lessons, classroom resources, annual updates and ongoing support for educators from SHINE SA teachers with support from clinicians.

The program is non-mandatory and funded to be offered in government high schools in full. Around 80 per cent of government schools participate in the program by committing to delivering all lessons prescribed within the program; however, SHINE SA's evaluations suggest that, of the 80 per cent of the schools enrolled, not all of them are carrying this out fully.

The pressure on schools to focus on numeracy and literacy outcomes, as well as the lack of funding and resources given to this area of education, has compounded to mean that students are not able to receive the full SHINE SA program. Although funding is provided for the program, it does not extend to allow teachers to take time away from classes to receive training. There also seems to be a lack of support from the Department for Education, as there is no policy encouraging schools to participate in the program or the number of lessons delivered to students each year.

From the wealth of evidence, there can be no doubt that the current approach to sex education is not working. We have known this for years now and nothing has been done about it. Ignoring recommendations for change, the state and federal governments have been confronted with protests both here and interstate.

This has been evidenced by Adelaide High School students, who have been campaigning to dismantle the rape culture, misogyny, sexism and sexual assault at Adelaide High School. Over social media, many shared their experiences within the school and their movement began to grow, leading to a student walkout at Adelaide High School. The call for action group soon became known statewide, with more and more school students from across South Australia joining their cause.

On 24 June, they held a march where thousands of students protested against sexual violence and called for better education that informs young people and prevents the current rate of sexual violence and assault from occurring. These young people did not want to step away from their education. They did not want to leave school, but they were forced to for the minister to notice and, along with most of the state, he did, responding with weak statements of things that may change.

Nearly five months on, we are still waiting for the minister to do something effective in this area. There has been little to no acknowledgement from the government on this issue and certainly no meaningful change implemented. The government must heed the calls of academics, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, the community and most importantly students. It is time our state recognises the importance of sexual education for students because school is not just about literacy and numeracy outcomes; it is also about the wellbeing of future generations.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. T.J. Stephens.

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