'We need to do better for young people'

An expert panel of University of Queensland researchers is examining the issue of sexual consent and will make recommendations to governments and schools about how to better teach young Australians about sexual violence.

Thousands of Australian students anonymously posted about their experiences this year in a viral online petition calling for consent to be the focus of sexual education of young Australians.

Professor Lisa Featherstone from UQ’s School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry has gathered the first inter-disciplinary team to thoroughly research what consent is, and how to best educate young people in the future.

“We really need to do better for young people,” Professor Featherstone said.

“They deserve factual information that is clear and gives them guidelines to work with.

“What we know is that not enough people get sex education.

“I still teach undergraduate students who have not had sex education in high school.”

Professor Featherstone’s team aims to work out what young people need to know about affirmative consent and what is the best way to get the message across.

“Affirmative consent is an enthusiastic ‘yes’ to sex,” she said.

“But what we find is that people who are in vulnerable situations are not able to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, they don’t really have those options.

“In some relationships people might be vulnerable to pressure or outright coercion or even actual physical violence when they attempt to say no to sexual encounters.

“We want to see how consent operates in the real world and also prevent affirmative consent being used in courts to say that someone has consented, when in actual fact, they haven’t.”

Queensland politician Jonty Bush, who revealed she was the victim of sexual assault earlier this year, said the understanding of and response to sexual violence in Australia must continue to be a priority.

“Queensland has recently passed legislation regarding consent and mistake of fact and it was clear from this debate that a deeper analysis of affirmative consent would really benefit those policy discussions,” Ms Bush said.

“In the majority of rape allegations reported to police, the issue is rarely whether a sexual act occurred, but more often, whether there was consent freely and voluntarily given by all parties.

“I look forward to following this research and being briefed on its findings.”

Professor Featherstone’s research project, ‘Sexual Violence and the Limits of Consent’ was recently granted $599,000 funding from a special Federal Government Research Support Package (RSP) which aims to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on Australia’s research.

For more information about consent:

• Consent is as easy as a cup of tea
• 1800 RESPECT