Universities ‘protecting their brand, not their students’: education minister needs to seize moment on sexual assault reforms

Last week the legal and constitutional affairs committee published the much-anticipated final report of its landmark inquiry into current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia. 

As I have previously written, the powerful testimony of victim-survivors of sexual violence and those who advocate on their behalf over the course of three days of public hearings in July visibly galvanised the three senators leading the inquiry — and represented a watershed moment. 

On Thursday, those three senators — Liberal Senator Paul Scarr, Labor Senator Nita Green and Greens Senator Larissa Waters — demonstrated that they had heard, really heard, what victim-survivors and advocates had to say. 

The report made 17 unanimous recommendations, addressing everything from how the justice system treats victim-survivors, to the consistent development of respectful relationship education across Australia, to law reform.

“I am so proud that the Senate was able to come to a consensus on these critical matters,” proclaimed Waters. “It feels like we have a moment here.”

Scarr described his work on the inquiry as “some of the most important work I will ever do”. 

Both are right. 

Importantly, the senators singled out the university sector, in particular its peak body Universities Australia and its regulator the Tertiary Education and Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA), for particular condemnation. To say that they were “scathing, absolutely scathing” (as Amy Remeikis did in the Guardian Australia politics liveblog) seems like a bit of an understatement. 

Scarr said: “The most disturbing evidence the committee heard was in relation to the failure of the university sector to appropriately respond to the issue of sexual violence on university campuses.” 

“It is a serious indictment of Australia’s university sector and the regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, that dedicated and courageous advocates for university students who have suffered from sexual violence on campus should hold the view that the process of making complaints and how universities and the regulator deal with such complaints is causing great trauma to the victims of sexual violence,” he said.

Given the evidence, Scarr added, the committee lacked confidence that the sector would respond appropriately without independent oversight and an “independent taskforce” should be established as a matter of urgency to ensure accountability. 

Universities were “protecting their brand, not their students”, added Waters. 

Those comments would have been incredibly validating for long-time campaigners like Sharna Bremner, the founder and director of End Rape On Campus Australia, and Camille Schloeffel, founder of The STOP Campaign, both of whom have valiantly raised the issue up the political agenda in the face of powerful institutional resistance. I have it on good authority there were a few tears. 

For the inquiry to throw its full weight behind advocates’ long-time call for an independent taskforce — a taskforce that could force meaningful accountability and transparency around which institutions are providing appropriate and effective responses and prevention — represents a turning point.

I hope Education Minister Jason Clare appreciates the significance of this moment. I’m not sure he does. 

Sexual violence on university campuses has been in the headlines again recently, with news the sector’s peak body, Universities Australia, axed a consent campaign funded by $1.5 million of taxpayer money due to the objections of a minority of vice-chancellors who felt it was too “risqué”. 

What’s more, the sector’s regulator and a number of universities have not met commitments they made following the Australian Human Rights Commission’s landmark 2017 report “Change the Course”. A recent study by Allison Henry, a research fellow and associate at the UNSW Australian Human Rights Institute, found that while all of Universities Australia’s 39 member universities agreed to be more transparent about sexual harm on campus, three-quarters were failing to do so.

As a result, Universities Australia’s chief executive Catriona Jackson faced a barrage of questions at the Senate consent inquiry public hearing in July. And following the controversy, Clare said: “The actions universities have taken to address this to date have not been good enough.” 

Yet instead of taking immediate action, Clare chose to refer the matter to a “working group” looking at university governance matters. This despite the fact that Labor promised to establish an independent taskforce ahead of the 2019 election. 

Amid the furore about the axed consent campaign, it emerged that Universities Australia had not yet committed to running the Student Safety Survey again in 2024, a commitment which has since been made.

While Universities Australia was right to commit to another survey, the fact that it took its members so long to do so is telling. We often hear in feminist circles that “what gets measured gets managed”. Did the seeming reluctance to measure the problem again suggest Universities Australia members were losing interest in “managing” it?

We need more than measurement. We need action. 

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.