ACARA curriculum director Janet Davey said consent education was already embedded in the health and physical education component of the national curriculum but it “may not be sufficient”.
“We’re working with our states and territory curriculum experts,we’re working with other subject experts in the respectful relationships area. We are looking at whether there are opportunities and a need to strengthen and make more explicit this[component],” Ms Davey told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday night.
“We need to let that process go through its process,and it will,before we can confirm what the outcome of that is.”
Former general manager of the Australian curriculum and deputy chair of Our Watch,Phil Lambert,said the emphasis on respectful relationships in the curriculum was “quite thin” and the review provided an important opportunity to bolster it.
“In the current Australian curriculum there are references to being respectful;that’s open to interpretation,” he said. “It doesn’t go to the key issues about respectful relationships that lead to things like not seeking consent. There’s no reference to gender-based violence.”
While those topics should be included as part of the curriculum review,he said reform also required a whole-of-school approach to respectful relationships education.