Consent Counts
07.10.2025 - 07:17
Outlining the role and social value of specialist educators in Australia's high school Consent and Respectful Relationships (CRRE) curriculum.
Sexual violence is a major part of Australia’s national challenge with gender-based violence
Australia faces a major, systemic issue in the form of gender-based violence, with sexual violence being a significant component.
In 2023, there were over 36,000 reported victim-survivors of sexual assault, the highest rate recorded across 31 years of data. The majority, 84%, of these victim-survivors were female.
The impact of this violence has strong and long-lasting effects, causing great harm to families, communities, and society at large.
Australian high schools can benefit from specialist support to deliver highly effective CRRE
From 2023, consent education was made a mandatory element of school curriculums across Australia. This was a promising step towards ensuring universal access to consent education. However, work still needs to be done. The ability to deliver practical and effective consent education for adolescents can vary across schools, with teachers already dealing with large workloads and schools needing a flexible curriculum to cater to community needs.
Specialist educators like Consent Labs are complementary to school-based learning – helping schools to drive lasting, widespread behavioural change through evidence-based curriculum and engaging delivery.
Consent Labs’ approach to CRRE has lasting impacts on students, teachers and parents
Consent Labs’ educational program addresses topics that are particularly relevant for young people. A survey of students aged 12 and above who had participated in a Consent Labs program showed a 20 percentage-point uplift in knowledge and confidence about issues of consent after a workshop. Meanwhile, 76% of students reported learning something practical that they can incorporate into their day-to-day life.
Improvement was also evident among educators and parents. 91% of educators considered specialist providers like Consent Labs important.
Consent Labs delivered $5.7M in lifetime benefits in FY25, at a return on investment of 3.48:1
Consent Labs produces a broad range of social benefits through the delivery of its CRRE programs, with a social return on investment (SROI) of 3.48:1. This implies that every $1 invested in Consent Labs produces $3.48 in social benefits.
The primary benefit stems from lasting impacts on students and society, who benefit from improved relationships and reduced rates of sexual harassment and violence. Students and society receive 81% of total benefits ($2.83 per dollar invested). Ancillary benefits include reduced burdens on educators and schools ($0.38), skill development and improved relationships for program facilitators ($0.06), and reduced caregiving responsibilities for parents and carers ($0.21).
Read the full report here.
Read our latest posts
Harnessing AI in the court system
Mandala’s latest research, commissioned by Microsoft, examines how AI can help Australian courts improve access to justice by reducing persistent case backlogs. We find that three promising AI applications (smart scheduling, document review and legal research support) could deliver around 95,500 additional case finalisations a year. These applications help courts manage existing workloads more efficiently, while reinforcing the integrity of court processes.
29 Oct, 2026
Rethinking the APR
Mandala's latest research, commissioned by Block, examines whether US credit disclosure requirements remain fit for purpose in a rapidly evolving lending market. Drawing on economic analysis, a survey of nearly 1,600 US consumers and small business decision-makers, and proprietary credit data, the report finds that Annual Percentage Rate (APR) disclosures can misrepresent the perceived cost of short-term borrowing and influence consumer choices. The report makes the case for modernising credit disclosure requirements, with a more flexible approach that better reflects different credit products while preserving consumer protection and access to credit.
15 Oct, 2026
The augmented attacker: the growing AI-driven cyber threat to Australian businesses
Mandala's latest research, commissioned by CyberCX (part of Accenture), shows that the AI-driven cyber threat to Australian businesses is growing. The report finds that AI could increase the frequency and severity of cyber incidents targeting Australian businesses. As AI-driven threats grow, Australian businesses could face losses reaching up to $37 billion a year. However, investing in foundational cyber defences such as patching known vulnerabilities could reduce annual losses from $37 billion to $13 billion, a $24 billion saving. Three-quarters of the savings are from preventative actions. The report highlights the actions required from businesses and government to improve cyber defence.
13 Oct, 2026
The Stagnant Nation: Lifting Australia’s Dynamism
Australians are going backwards on real wages and income. Real wage growth has fallen from 0.6 per cent in the 2000s to -0.7 per cent today, the slowest rate since the 1990s recession. Weak productivity growth is a key driver. Productivity growth has dropped from 2.2 per cent in the 1990s to just 0.1 per cent today. The Productivity Commission has pointed to declining economic dynamism as one cause for weak growth, with fewer businesses starting, growing and competing. We confirm declining economic dynamism across five key dimensions and estimate that reversing this decline seen since the mid-2000s could see a GDP uplift of $101 billion per year over the next decade. Our analysis finds that regulation could account for around 20 per cent of declining dynamism. Reducing regulatory burden to late-2000s levels could see GDP uplift of at least $20 billion per year over the next ten years.
7 Oct, 2026