Health Minister Mark Butler has rejected claims of an anti-boy agenda in Australian schools, saying teaching young men to respect women is “not woke” as a political row over classroom content intensifies.
The dispute erupted after Liberal leader Angus Taylor backed Nationals senator Matt Canavan’s assertion that political activism was influencing what children were taught. Canavan has argued that respectful relationships lessons risk pushing boys towards misogynistic online figures rather than preventing harmful behaviour.
Speaking on Sunrise on Friday, Mr Butler said the greater danger came from social media companies and algorithms that directed toxic material towards young people.
“Teaching respect for girls is not woke. It’s not weak. It’s not socialist, frankly. It’s just decency,” he said.
Mr Butler praised teachers for confronting material reaching children through their phones and computers, saying the job had become more difficult because families and schools were competing with online platforms for young people’s attention.
He also accused Mr Taylor of following the lead of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, who has claimed teachers are “brainwashing” students.
“Unfortunately, this is another example of One Nation telling the Liberal Party to jump and Angus Taylor saying ‘how high?’” Mr Butler said.
What the respectful relationships curriculum says
Mr Canavan has described the curriculum as “anti-boy” and claimed it could drive young men towards so-called manosphere content. He has also suggested that more male teachers and role models should be present in schools.
However, neither Mr Canavan nor Mr Taylor has provided specific examples of the alleged political activism. Australia’s national Respectful Relationships Education Framework does not refer specifically to “male privilege”; it focuses on respectful relationships, consent, gender equality and helping boys and young men explore masculinity in healthy ways.
The framework also asks students to consider how identity, power and inequality can shape relationships, with teaching intended to be age-appropriate and adapted to individual school communities.
Mr Taylor has said consent education is important but called for greater balance, telling the ABC that it was wrong to suggest no teachers were pursuing political agendas in classrooms.
Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume defended parents’ right to question school programmes but stopped short of endorsing the claim that activism was taking place. She said children should learn “how to think, not what to think”, while backing respectful relationships and consent education at school and at home.
The Australian Education Union dismissed the criticism as a fundamentally inaccurate portrayal of the education system and accused its political opponents of displaying “complete ignorance” about how teachers operate.
Labor has maintained that harmful online algorithms, rather than consent and respectful relationships lessons, are the main source of concern in the debate over the influences shaping Australian boys.
