One year after launching a national petition, Chanel Contos met with Prime Minister Scott Morrison for the first time today to discuss consent education in Australia.
Speaking to TDA, Contos said the two main aims of the meeting were to “educate the Prime Minister” and ask for a national survey about the experiences of high school students.
The Prime Minister first agreed to have a meeting with Contos in May of last year.
“I used the meeting as an opportunity to educate the Prime Minister, because I think there’s quite a big disconnect between the young people of Australia and policymakers,” Contos explained.
The Teach Us Consent founder said Morrison was “receptive” to this.
Request for a national survey
Contos said she then proposed to conduct a national survey “to better understand the experiences, beliefs, and attitudes of high school students in Australia in regards to the culture around consent, sexual assault, respect, and relationships”.
The survey would include at least 150,000 students across the country, Contos hopes.
The 23-year-old added the survey would seek to understand what young Australians know about consent and result in a “more targeted focus on how we can prevent this very specific type of sexual violence”.
Morrison called it “a really good idea,” Contos said.
PM response
In a statement to TDA, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister said: “The Prime Minister had a productive meeting with Chanel Contos and discussed her work in consent education and the proposed national survey.
“The Prime Minister looks forward to continuing to work with Chanel on this important issue.”
Consent mandated
It comes after it was announced last week that Ministers of Education in all Australian jurisdictions have agreed to mandate consent education in every Australian school. It will now be compulsory for age-appropriate consent education to be taught every year from kindergarten to Year 10.