Consent 

can’t wait

Most Australians agree that consent is key to healthy sexual experiences. But what does consent mean? What does it look like in action? 


When we think about sexual consent, many adults think of the negative side. How getting it wrong can lead to serious consequences. This is natural because we want to protect our kids and it’s how many of us were raised. But talking about consent doesn’t have to be something that only happens when things go wrong.


In fact, it’s something many of us aren’t talking about at all, so we don’t have a shared understanding. 


Before we can talk to our kids about consent, we need to talk to each other. 


This campaign has been developed to help us get on the same page about consent. By talking with other adults first and sharing experiences, we’ll feel more confident about the topic. Then it will become easier to raise these ideas with the young people in our lives. 


Together we can help create a safer society and reduce instances of sexual violence. The first step is to check your understanding.

Understanding consent means challenging what we think we already know about the topic.  

It’s not usually a topic we openly discuss, so starting now might feel awkward or difficult. But taking the time to truly understand consent means having better, more informed conversations. 

Check your understanding by generating a question with the button below: 

Consent explained

What is sexual consent? 

Answer

Sexual consent is a free, voluntary and informed agreement between people to participate in a sexual act. This agreement is only present when these people mutually and genuinely feel they want to engage in that sexual act and actively make sure their partner does too.