Australia is making progress in believing racism exists — but less so sexual violence

More people believe that racism is a problem in Australia than in previous years, according to the latest Scanlon report on social cohesion. But other reports released this week show understanding of sexual violence is incredibly low, and people of faith fail to recognise domestic violence as an issue within their communities. 

It’s been exemplified by none other than NSW’s Labor shadow attorney-general Michael Daley who, when the state’s affirmative consent laws were being passed in Parliament in mid-November, took issue with a provision where consent cannot be given when “the person is unconscious or asleep”. (Daley supported the affirmative consent bill.) 

“If you are married to someone and have a 40-year practice of having sex with them when they are asleep, you are doing so now without consent,” he said. “It needs to be made clear to people how that will work out in real life … It is a significant change.” 

Yikes. Here’s what we know.

Understanding of racism on the rise

Six in 10 people surveyed as part of Monash University’s Mapping Social Cohesion report said racism was “very big” or “fairly big”, compared with just 40% in 2020. Those born in Asia were more aware of racism; 59% said it was a “very big” or “fairly big” problem compared with 36% of those born in Australia. 

Women are more likely to believe racism is a problem — 68% said it was a very or fairly big problem compared with 50% of men. Nearly one in three surveyed Chinese-Australians reported experiencing some form of discrimination in the past 12 months. 

Sexual violence victims are not believed 

A new report from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety found poor understanding of consent (hi, Daley!), sexual assault and poor perceptions about a woman’s character fuel misbelief about the prevalence of sexual violence. As many as four in 10 Australians mistrusted women’s reports of sexual violence victimisation. 

Although people understand “no means no”, it gets muddier around consent — many don’t believe rape occurs until a person speaks up or fights back. This is exactly what NSW’s new affirmative consent laws are tackling: victims of sexual violence often freeze from fear or to protect themselves from further violence and the new laws mean consent isn’t given unless there is a yes — instead of waiting for there to be a no. 

False reporting of sexual assault is rare, yet 42% of Australians agreed that “it was common for sexual assault accusations to be used as a way of getting back at men”. 

A national survey found 13% of Australians agreed a man is justified in having non-consensual sex if the woman initiated intimacy with someone she had just met, while one in five Australians were unaware that non-consensual sex in marriage is against the law.

Religious communities won’t look inward

A report released this week by the ANU found Australians who are frequently involved in religion and who identify as religious are less likely to think domestic violence is an issue in their communities. 

While the research found no evidence that domestic violence is more or less prevalent in religious communities than anywhere else, denial was an issue. 

So too was the response: some religious leaders focused on forgiveness and repenting over ensuring people were safe from harm, focusing on defensiveness and victim-blaming.

Those who pray or attend religious services frequently failed to acknowledge that domestic violence was common in one’s faith community. They were also more likely to have patriarchal beliefs — a driver of domestic violence. 

Attitudes that support gender inequality — such as believing women shouldn’t earn more than their partner, that men shouldn’t show emotion, or that women fail to fully appreciate all that men do for them — provide social conditions in which violence against women is more likely to occur. 

Church leaders were also opposed to criminalising rape in marriage, which has been illegal in Australian states only since the 1980s. 

What does it all mean? 

ANU gender policy fellow Dr Sonia Palmieri, who wrote the religion and domestic violence perception report, says that when it comes to progress in understanding racism and gendered violence, it’s often two steps forward, one step back.

“Conversations on both have shifted and we’re talking about both more than we might have a few years ago,” she said. “They’re overlapping issues, because a lot of violence against women is racialised, and a lot of racism is gendered.” 

She says recent events such as the Black Lives Matter movement and sex discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ reports into workplace and parliamentary sexual harassment had caused many white Australians to look inward. COVID-19 too had played a role, with a focus on who was getting sick and the different police approaches to social restrictions in different regions — such as locking down western Sydney when the health advice was to lock down all of Sydney. 

But, she says, there is a long way to go. 

“Some improvements, especially in perceptions of gendered violence have gone backward. We make progress on some issues and then there’s backlash and people think issues have been fixed or addressed,” she said. 

“Those who have lost something in terms of power will often push back.”