New code of conduct to reduce sexual violence on campuses
Universities will be subject to a national code of conduct which aims to reduce rates of sexual violence in tertiary education. It will be part of a national action plan on the issue agreed to by state, territory, and Federal Education ministers in Melbourne.
Transcript
00:00 They've given us a national action plan on how to combat sexual violence at universities.
00:06 So we know from the last National Student Safety Survey done in 2020 that around 14,300
00:14 students during that time were sexually assaulted over the course of a year in a university
00:18 setting.
00:19 Now we know now that for a while the Federal Government has wanted to take action on this
00:22 so have the states and territories.
00:23 It's how we've ended up with this action plan that's just come out today.
00:26 Now I'm still making my way through it but there are some pretty big changes in here.
00:30 One of them is a National Student Ombudsman.
00:31 So students will be able to go to this ombudsman, basically a watchdog, to report issues around
00:37 how their universities are handling these problems.
00:40 They can also go to them about all manner of non-sexual violence related issues as well
00:45 but that's going to be one of its key focuses.
00:47 And there's also going to be a National Code of Conduct too and the universities are going
00:51 to be expected to report to the Federal Government on how they're progressing on this issue,
00:55 on how they're tackling it, so already a lot more oversight there as well.
00:59 The Federal Government has made it very clear that they have a big appetite to reform universities.
01:04 Now we don't know exactly what's going to be in it yet but we understand it's over 300
01:08 pages.
01:09 It's going to be a long document with lots of pretty big ideas in it and I reckon we'll
01:13 probably have to wait until May to find out whether the Government's willing to back it
01:16 up with money but definitely keep an eye out on Sunday.
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