Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak today on the subject of sex education. There is nothing more controversial than the topic of abortion, of course, but the topic of young people and sex runs a very close second. There is typically an outcry when the issue of sex education for young people is raised. The government recently announced a $51 million package for pregnancy counselling and, while there will be ongoing debate about the purpose of this package and how it will be put in practice, it must be true to say that it will have no effect on reducing the number of unwanted or unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections or relationship violence in the community. Nor will it do anything to fight homophobia or help young people decide if and when they will be sexually active.

Pretending that young people are not interested in reproduction and are not sexually aware, keeping them in the dark about their bodies and the changes taking place therein, or suggesting that they just say no are also not effective responses to safeguarding the safety and wellbeing of young Australians. Many parents and others may not approve but we do know that by the end of high school most young people are sexually active and we know that sexual activity is beginning at a younger age than ever before. The national sex survey published in 2003 revealed that the average age of onset of puberty in Australia today is now 10 years of age and the average age of first vaginal intercourse is 16.

The secondary students and sexual health 2002 survey found that the majority of young people in years 10 and 12 are sexually active in some way—only around 20 per cent have no sexual experience at all. It also found that sexual activity has increased among secondary school students since the previous survey in 1997. The survey found that 25 per cent of year 10 students and more than 50 per cent of year 12 students had had vaginal intercourse and 56 per cent of year 12 students had participated in oral sex within the last 12 months. These statistics are, of course, coupled with the later age of marriage, and this means that young people today can expect to have a long period between the onset of puberty and the commitment to a lifetime partnership across a stage of their life in which they are likely to be sexually active. During this period serial monogamy or a number of sexual partners in a year is likely to be the norm.

Rates of sexual ill-health and sexual risk-taking behaviour are high amongst young people. Pregnancy, childbirth and sexually transmitted infection are major contributors to the overall morbidity of the adolescent age group. Contraception is used inconsistently and not at all by many young people and they often do not think about protecting themselves from diseases. Many adolescents delay seeking prescription contraception for an average of one year after initiating sexual activity. Forty-five per cent of sexually active Australian high school students do not use condoms consistently, while 31 per cent use condoms without another form of contraception.

Teenagers are the most frequent users of emergency contraception at Australian family planning clinics and half of adolescent pregnancies occur in the first six months of sexual activity. Rates of chlamydia are on the rise, particularly in under-25-year-olds. The few prevalence surveys undertaken of Australian adolescents have reported rates of chlamydia of up to 28 per cent. Repeated infections are the main cause of pelvic inflammatory disease and adolescents are at greater risk of this complication than adults. Pelvic inflammatory disease can lead to tubal infertility, chronic pelvic pain and ectopic pregnancy, with consequential substantial drains on public funds during the adult years.

The national sex survey found that knowledge of how common sexually transmitted infections, such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea, genital warts and herpes, are transmitted is alarmingly poor. How can we expect our young people to reduce their risk of infection or advise their peers if they do not actually know what sexually transmitted infection is?

Twenty-three per cent of the students in the 2002 study indicated that they were drunk or high the last time they had sex, increasing the likelihood that they would fail to use contraception and have sex when they did not want to. That 2002 study of high school students found that 4.6 per cent of young men and 8.8 per cent of young women in years 10 and 12 reported some level of same sex attraction. Studies of same-sex-attracted young people show that they often struggle with these issues in a climate of homophobia and silence with frequent experiences of bullying and harassment. They are also frequently the ones that engage in high levels of unsafe sex with members of the opposite sex in a desperate attempt to hide from their feelings. These young people are also at higher risk of dropping out of school, homelessness and poor mental health.

Child sexual abuse, date rape, rape and sexual assault and sexual coercion are common experiences of many young people. In most cases the perpetrator is known to the victim. Many victims do not know that they have a right to say no and be taken seriously, and many perpetrators believe they have a right to sex. Just over a quarter of sexually active students in the 2002 survey reported that they had had unwanted sex at sometime in their life.

We often hear that the constant presence of sexualised images in Western countries creates pressure on adolescents to have sexual relationships, yet Australia has not implemented comprehensive sexual health education programs to teach children and young people the skills to resist these pressures or to protect themselves from adverse consequences. This is despite evidence that education and access to resources from an early age may protect children from child sexual abuse and also delay the age of first sexual intercourse, increase the use of contraceptives and decrease sexually transmitted infections and HIV infection, unwanted pregnancy, abortion and maternal and child mortality.

Australia does not have a national standard for sexuality and relationship education in schools. Sex education is part of the Australian school curriculum, but it is not mandatory. Individual schools decide what is taught in the classroom, and there are differences between states. The Commonwealth funded classroom resource Talking Sexual Health is being implemented in all states, but only in some schools and to varying degrees. It only looks at education about diseases. There is little attention to the positive sides of sexuality, providing insight into one’s own sexual development or developing skills in communicating. There is nothing on teaching young children about sexual abuse and self-protection skills. Quality sexual health and relationships education can strengthen children’s and young people’s judgment skills and decision-making abilities. It can teach young people to understand their rights, responsibilities and the importance of respect for themselves and others.

This information and these skills enable people to negotiate safe and consensual sexual behaviour throughout their lives to reduce their sexual risk taking and to show how inclusive our community can be. It also helps people to make their own choices, either to abstain from or enjoy sexuality free of guilt, shame and regret. Of course there will be resistance. There are a lot of misconceptions about what good sex and relationships education is about. There are also those who argue that sex education encourages early sexual behaviour, promiscuity and homosexuality despite all of the evidence to the contrary. In South Australia in 2003 when 15 schools began to trial a sexual health and relationships education program based on five years of research that drew on best practice in overseas countries, the religious right went to town with misinformation and intimidation.

There needs to be proper training for teachers and involvement of parents. The Commonwealth’s own sexual health resource points out that sexuality education overwhelmingly relies on volunteers and conscripts, who are largely expected to train themselves. They say:

... sexuality education, the most loosely defined and disparate of curriculum areas, is being taught by teachers who invariably feel under-trained, under-resourced and under siege.

We need professional development programs that focus on improving the knowledge base of teachers as well as on developing skills to build an appropriate classroom climate to recognise and cater for the diversity of students and to link at-risk students to appropriate services.

We cannot continue to ignore that we live in a world where most young people will not be waiting for their parents to tell them the facts of life but will be piecing together at a very early age from all they see in the world around them information on the subject. Instead, we need to engage with their newly developing capacity to make good and healthy decisions for themselves and provide them with the support that they need. An inquiry into sex education would tell us what information our young people are or are not receiving, counter the baseless claims about sex education and even allow young people to speak for themselves about what they need and want to know. We need to be able to draw from the experiences of other nations and existing programs to create a model of age-appropriate sexuality and relationships education that works with parents to prepare our children and our young people for the real world.