New campaign shines light on consent laws

The online Make No Doubt initiative was implemented in correlation with the new sexual consent laws that will be in force as of June 1, 2022, and managing director of Consent Education Australia Isabel Fox said it's a positive sign to see the government providing clarity around such an important matter.

"I think part of the problem that we know exists is that we often don't have a lot of clarity around what consent is," Ms Fox said.

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The campaign will run for 12 weeks and features a number of videos explaining what consent looks like under the new legislation, after being passed in Parliament almost unanimously in November 2021.

The initiative focuses on affirmative consent, highlighting how to identify consent not just verbally but through body language.

Ms Fox said this is a big and important shift away from the "no means no" philosophy that was taught 30 odd years ago.

Just because the word 'no' isn't said doesn't mean that it isn't implied, and this is something Consent Education Australia has been teaching to young people for quite a few years now.

"Now we understand more how we respond to stress or fear, we know that people can freeze in that space and what we were taught 25-30 years ago as teenagers is really different to what the law is now," Ms Fox said.

"Affirmative consent is the only way that we can ensure that everybody is freely enthusiastically participating in whatever's going on.

"Our aim is to stop poor behaviour or bad decision making due to lack of education and understanding, which is why this is really important, because if we don't have clarity in our education you'll make mistakes simply because you don't know they're mistakes."

Minister for Women's Safety and the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence Natalie Ward said the new campaign shows the government's commitment to preventing and responding to sexual assault.

"No law can ever erase the trauma of sexual assault," she said.

"But we have listened to calls for change and consulted victim-survivors and legal experts to improve our response to sexual violence, including the need for community education about consent."

The campaign is the third phase of the government's Make No Doubt initiative, which debuted in 2018, and is the product of nine months of consulting with numerous stakeholders.

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