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AAP
AAP
Politics
Jack Gramenz

School consent survey in prevention push

Human Rights commissioners Kate Jenkins( pic) and Anne Hollonds will develop the consent survey. (AAP)

High school students will be surveyed on their attitudes regarding consent as part of a plan to prevent family, domestic and sexual violence.

The survey will be conducted ahead of an expected update to the national curriculum that will expand consent education from 2023 and provide benchmark data to assess the impact of the expanded curriculum.

The Australian Human Rights Commission will develop the survey, with consent education advocate Chanel Contos serving as a special advisor.

Ms Contos brought attention to consent education in schools last year when she conducted her own survey via Instagram that brought forward thousands of stories, mostly from women, who had been sexually assaulted while they were in school.

Initially focused on the issue at a handful of single-sex Sydney private schools, it soon swelled into a petition with more than 44,000 signatures calling for earlier and expanded teaching of consent education in all schools.

Australian sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins and national children's commissioner Anne Hollonds will lead the survey's development.

The AHRC has conducted regular surveys on sexual harassment in workplaces since 2002 and through the national children's commissioner has also conducted surveys and consultations with children and young people.

The Commission will receive $5 million to develop the survey.

It's part of additional funding aimed at the prevention of family and sexual violence through early intervention.

Women Minister Marise Payne said it "will help address the underlying drivers of gendered violence".

"This includes attitudes and behaviours that excuse, justify and even promote violence against women," Ms Payne said.

Our Watch, a primary prevention organisation founded by the Victorian and federal governments that now receives funding from all states and territories, will be the primary beneficiary of the new funding.

The bulk of the $189 million program will go to the organisation, with $104 million set to be delivered over five years, which Ms Payne said is the largest investment made in the organisation so far.

"This record investment in Our Watch not only attests to the importance and impact of our work, but also to the belief, backed by national and international evidence, that violence against women is preventable," Our Watch chief executive Patty Kinnersly said.

The record funding for Our Watch comes amid a record demand for its services.

"People want to be part of this change, and this investment will allow us to reach more people in more places across the nation," Ms Kinnersly said.

A new $48 million campaign aimed at men will focus on changing attitudes and expectations which condone or excuse violence, and $32 million will be added to $10.7 million already budgeted for a consent campaign focused on teenagers and their parents.

Women's Safety Minister Anne Ruston says the campaigns will ensure "crucial messages about consent are heard in every home around Australia", to better inform people about sexual consent so they are better equipped to talk to their children about it.

Men will also be asked "to consider how they can hold each other to account because sexual violence should not be considered a women's problem to solve," Ms Ruston said.

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