The Coalition has promised to preserve sexual consent education in its planned curriculum review, despite Peter Dutton’s push to remove “indoctrination” and focus on “critical thinking and common sense.”
Introduced in 2022 with bipartisan support, the program teaches students about respectful relationships and consent. Liberal frontbencher Anne Ruston reaffirmed, “We’re committed to its role in addressing gendered violence.”
Greek-Australian advocate Chanel Contos, who led the campaign for its inclusion, welcomed the unity. “It’s a relief Australia hasn’t followed the U.S. in politicizing this,” she told the ABC. “Consent should unite us in raising a respectful generation.”
Coalition spokesperson Sarah Henderson has called the curriculum, due for review next term, impractical, pointing to its 3,500-page math section. Labor’s Jason Clare dismissed Dutton’s approach as “extreme,” prioritizing basic skills. Some, like Minus 18’s Adrian Murdoch, worry other programs could be at risk amid “woke agenda” rhetoric.