00:01Well, we're seeing a concerning rise in misogyny amongst young people and also a rise in sexual
00:08violence by teenage boys against teenage girls.
00:11So today's roundtable was an urgent measure organised by the Acting Premier of New South
00:18Wales to bring together experts to identify concrete steps that we can take to address
00:23this problem.
00:25We had really robust discussions.
00:27It's just a first step.
00:28There's a lot more still to be done.
00:30Many more discussions we need to have.
00:32But it was a really productive and important first step today.
00:37So what did the meeting identify as key drivers of sexual violence and misogyny?
00:43We talked about these issues under three broad themes.
00:46So we talked about the online environment, which is a really important piece of the puzzle.
00:52So the algorithms that are pushing out misogynistic content to teenage boys and also pushing out
00:58really problematic content to teenage girls.
01:01We talked about, as part of that online discussion, the pernicious impact of violent porn that many
01:08children are watching years before they had their first sexual experience.
01:11We also talked about two other themes broadly.
01:14We talked about the role of schools and education, and we talked about the role of parents, carers and broader
01:22communities.
01:23So those were the three themes of our discussion.
01:26And we had really robust discussions under each of those themes.
01:31And so what are some of the practical outcomes of this today that could make an impact?
01:36Taking into account that you've just you've said that this is the first step.
01:42Yes.
01:42Well, one of the key things that we agreed on was that we need more support and better support for
01:49survivors of sexual violence now.
01:51So that's really important not to lose sight of that picture, that we need supports immediately for sexual assault survivors.
01:59But more broadly, looking at it, what we need to do to prevent this from happening, we identified that we
02:06need to expand and improve respectful relationships,
02:09education in schools across all of the different school sectors and look at digital literacy, consent, looking at education from
02:18as early as possible in an age appropriate way.
02:21We also talked about better support for parents and carers and other trusted adults so that they can have those
02:28really important conversations with young people,
02:30conversations about online influences, about pornography, about healthy relationships.
02:36We talked about other measures for prevention, which should be really important, and critically, the online environment.
02:42We had a lot of federal ministers there today, which was great.
02:46Online is often a federal issue, and they're doing a lot of work in this area.
02:50But we talked about how to address those algorithms that are targeting young people and what we can do about
02:56violent porn that's normalising some really problematic sexual practices amongst young people.
03:01What were some of the suggestions about how education in schools can be improved on this?
03:07Well, we talked about the respectful relationships education program that currently exists, which has already been expanded and improved a
03:15lot in the last few years in New South Wales.
03:17So we learnt about where things are up to at the moment, and then we discussed how to improve that,
03:23and crucially, how to make it a whole-of-school approach, because that's what we really need.
03:28This can't just be an hour seminar here or something that someone comes in once every few months to talk
03:34to the kids about.
03:35This needs to be the whole of school, everyone working together in that school with the same messaging.
03:41So we talked about how we can work towards that approach across all schools in New South Wales.
03:46What do you make of the comments from Nationals leader Matt Canavan that there's what he calls an anti-boy
03:52ideology taught through the respectful relationships framework that you've mentioned there, and that is what is pushing boys towards misogynistic
04:02content online?
04:03This is absolutely not anti-boy.
04:07I'm the mother of two boys myself, and we really want to be engaging boys and young men in a
04:12constructive way.
04:13So we want to be talking about healthy models of masculinity, what it looks like to be a good man.
04:19We want positive male role models.
04:21So this is not in any way about shaming or alienating boys.
04:25That's not what we want.
04:27We want to bring boys along on this journey and engage them in a constructive way.
04:31But we also need to put girls and young women at the centre of the conversation.
04:35So it wasn't just about talking about the boys today.
04:38It was also about what we can do to support the girls.
04:41How important is it that Australia sees change on this front?
04:46Oh, it is so important.
04:48This is one of the greatest challenges of our time at the moment, is how to better support young people
04:54with these attitudes that are becoming increasingly misogynistic.
04:58And we, as I said, we're seeing a rise in sexual violence between teenagers, which is very concerning.
05:05There was recent research by the University of Melbourne that indicated that young men have attitudes towards women that are
05:13actually much less progressive than older men.
05:17So young men in Australia, almost a third, said that women's rights and equal opportunities had gone too far.
05:24Almost a quarter said that feminism should be resisted by violence if necessary.
05:29This is recent research.
05:31And those numbers were much higher than all of the cohorts of older men in Australia.
05:36So this is very concerning when we think about what that means in practice for women and girls in the
05:42community.
