September 4, 2026 — 11:07amThe Liberal Party’s most senior woman has played down her Coalition partner’s attack on Australia’s school curriculum, arguing Nationals leader Matt Canavan was speaking from personal experience when he claimed respectful relationships education was pushing an “anti-boy ideology”.As federal Labor ministers joined an emergency roundtable on sexual violence on Friday to discuss a string of schoolboys accused of rape, the Coalition remains caught between combatting One Nation’s populist wave and recapturing moderate voters that have fled to the teals.Deputy opposition leader Jane Hume (left), Opposition Leader Angus Taylor (centre) and Nationals leader Matt Canavan at a press conference in Melbourne this week.Ruby AlexanderOn Friday, deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume disagreed that the nation’s curriculum was pushing boys towards harmful online content, as Canavan had claimed earlier in the week, but said the senator had the right to discuss his child’s education.“Matt was talking about his own experiences as a parent and the program that his son had been through,” she told Channel Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise.“If there is activism that’s creeping into our classrooms or our curriculum, why not speak up about it?”Canavan has taken aim at the Respectful Relationships program run by the states, which he claimed asked boys “to explore and reflect on their personal male privilege and power”.Opposition Leader Angus Taylor refused three times on Thursday to explicitly say consent education should be taught in schools when asked on ABC TV. At a press conference later that day, he agreed consent should be taught, but said too many teachers were pushing their own agendas.Hume, who co-authored a 2022 internal review warning the Coalition was failing to win over women voters, did not directly address Taylor’s claims but defended the work of educators.“Teachers do an incredible job in Australia. My sister’s a teacher, and I have to say, I see the dedication that she has to the students in her charge,” Hume said.“This doesn’t need to be an attack on teachers, and we should be able to ... take a position on whether political activism is taking place in our classroom. That’s unacceptable.”Taylor said on Friday that “most teachers in this country are wonderful people”, but that a Coalition government would take a hard look at the national curriculum.He swerved questions about gender and the Respectful Relationships program, instead pointing to climate and Palestine as flashpoints for political activism in classrooms.“I don’t think it’s appropriate that a teacher should be wearing a free Palestine badge. So what we don’t want to see from our teachers is political agendas, and that was my point,” Taylor said.Liberal frontbencher Anne Ruston was also quizzed over Taylor’s comments on Friday, and said she had worked with consent advocate Chanel Contos to ensure respectful values were taught when she was social services minister.“I think that that was what Angus was referring to, as the very strong need to make sure respectful behaviours are taught to young people because respectful young people usually turn into respectful older people,” the opposition health spokeswoman told Radio National.Health Minister Mark Butler rejected Hume’s framing of Canavan’s comments and accused the Coalition of aping One Nation.“Matt wasn’t just talking as a parent; he was talking as Australia’s alternative deputy prime minister, and Angus Taylor was talking as Australia’s alternative prime minister,” he said, appearing alongside Hume on Sunrise.Matt Golding Butler echoed Education Minister Jason Clare by blaming social media companies for pushing harmful content onto young boys.“All of us are fighting this rearguard action against big tech and the monsters, frankly, who surf the algorithms to push this toxic mess into the screens particularly of our young boys,” he said.“Teaching respect for girls is not woke. It’s not weak. It’s not socialist. Frankly, it’s just decency.”Speaking before Friday’s roundtable, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek said the government was preparing to go further to protect young people from toxic ideologies that were spilling from online spaces into real life.“We have a really important opportunity today to talk about what we do in the real world to make sure that girls and boys are growing up safe, they’re growing up in ways that prioritise consent and respect as they develop their first romantic relationships,” she told reporters in Sydney.Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.From our partners