STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator WHITEAKER (Western Australia) (13:46): Last week, when Senator Canavan told the country that boys are sick and tired of the feminisation of our curriculum, I was reminded of the words of the late Gloria Steinem, who said, 'The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn but to unlearn.' I think that Senator Canavan has some unlearning to do.

The word 'feminisation' assumes that anything historically seen as feminine is weak or soft or not worth anyone's time. We should be really clear that there's nothing wrong with that word. Many of us grew up as girls being told, 'If a boy is mean to you, it probably means they like you.' But what does that sentence teach kids?

It tells girls that hurt comes from a place of affection, it tells boys that they're entitled to behave that way and it tells both of them that this is just the way the world is. Women of my generation have had to unlearn that, and we've promised ourselves that we won't pass it on to our own children. I think about this a lot, raising a little boy.

How do we raise boys who respect women? How do we stop teaching kids that colours and toys and jobs belong to a particular gender? How do we teach consent to girls and boys so that our children know how to keep themselves and each other safe?

Senator Canavan calls consent education 'anti boy' and blames teachers, but this simply means that those who are to blame get away with their behaviour. We're seeing the peddling of dangerous messages to young boys and men online, and that is where the blame firmly lies. Its message is more dangerous than it has ever been, and we all have a responsibility to hold them accountable, not blame our hardworking teachers.