March4Justice: Why you should “Expect Respect”
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 126 No 3, 9 April 2021, page no.11
On 14-15 March, tens of thousands of Australian women took to the streets to March4Justice, prompted by the federal government’s deplorable response to reports of rape in our nation’s Parliament building and separate allegations of sexual abuse levelled against a member of the nation’s cabinet.
Leaders like Australian of the Year Grace Tame have been making a stand for justice for those who have experienced gendered violence in our nation, as has the Australian union movement. Our union was proud to represent our members at this pivotal and poignant moment in our nation’s history.
The Respect@Work report by Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins highlighted the appalling prevalence of sexual harassment, and also the vulnerability of young workers, those in insecure work, people with a disability, those in the LGBTQ+ community and also First Nations people.
A survey by the Australian Education Union which fed into the report supported anecdotal evidence I had observed: teachers are most likely to experience gendered harassment from the students they teach. I have heard shocking stories of teachers' reports being negated and appalling behaviour being dismissed as “boys being boys”!
As the March4Justice painfully exposes, most women have an experience of unwanted sexual harassment or sexual violence. We know that, on average, a woman a week dies from domestic or family violence. I do not know one teacher who hasn’t experienced a form of gendered harassment from students.
How safe can female students feel if they have to observe their teachers being harassed, their subsequent treatment and the lack of recourse? If this is how the young males we teach are treating the women who teach them, then how are they treating their peers?
Attitudes toward gender form at an early age, and education has a key function in addressing the ingrained misogyny in Australian culture. And we are naive if we think this isn’t affecting our students – many of whom have already experienced unwanted sexual abuse and harassment (or worse) from family, peers or others.
Expect Respect
In early 2020, prior to COVID-19, the QTU began working on a campaign to address the gendered violence experienced by our members. Many of the objectives of this campaign align to the Respect@Work recommendations, including:
- the introduction of a (funded) respectful relationships program in every school
- the introduction of a reporting process that differs from the formal employee complaint process
- renewed focus on sexual harassment policies
- training and support
- industrial mechanisms to address behaviours
- capacity to identify and record (and then monitor) student behaviour that is gendered in nature.
In Term 2, the QTU will launch a statewide member survey to enable members to have an input into this important and timely campaign. What are your experiences of gendered violence? How prevalent is gendered violence in our state schools and TAFE campuses? We want to hear about your experiences, and the training and support, or lack thereof. We need to know if managers feel supported and equipped to deal with complaints. It is essential to gather data on this issue, because to date the department has failed to understand the issues or take up QTU concerns. In the past, the QTU has been advised “there is no issue as there are hardly any complaints”.
The survey will remain open for four weeks. Please distribute it and encourage your colleagues and managers to complete it. We need as many as possible to engage. You can find out more about the Expect Respect campaign on the QTU website.
Consent
The QTU will continue to work with the department as it further investigates how consent is addressed across our curriculum. Students’ voices must be included in these forums. Their experiences are disturbing, a stark reminder that we must not fail them, or pander to the ultra-conservatives who fail to call out the perpetrators and would rather it all went away.
The QTU welcomes the renewed calls for consent to be addressed in schools, but it is essential that this is done well. Genuine education reforms that aren’t a further burden for teachers must be supported with quality professional development and time.