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The Federal Government has pulled two videos from an education campaign aimed at teaching consent to school students after they attracted widespread criticism.

The two videos removed are among the most controversial and use a milkshake and a shark analogy to discuss the concept of consent.

The videos have been criticised as being patronising, abstract and only serving to muddy the waters around the crucial topic.

In a statement posted online by the Department of Education secretary Michele Bruniges, she said the videos were removed after a review of the $7.8 million Respect Matters campaign.

Data from the Federal Government's AusTender resource indicates the videos were part of a $3.79 million contract.

"In response to community and stakeholder feedback, two videos have been removed from The Good Society website," Dr Bruniges said in the statement.

"The website contains about 350 resources aimed to support teachers and parents to educate students across all age groups about respectful relationships more broadly."

"The website is designed to be a live and dynamic resource, with content added, removed, and modified, to ensure it remains current and appropriate."

In the "milkshake" video, a boy and girl are seen drinking a milkshake, before the girl smears the drink in the boy's face.

"This is what we call moving the line," a narrator says. 

"When a person imposes their will on you, it's as if they were moving the 'yes' line over the 'maybe zone' or the end zone, ignoring your rich inner world and violating your individual freedoms and rights. 

"Moving the line is at least disrespectful and at worst abusive."

In the shark video, a man with a spear gun attempts to convince a woman to swim in shark-infested waters.

'Woeful, cringeworthy and confusing'

Earlier today, NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell and Victoria's Acting Premier James Merlino both blasted the campaign.

Ms Mitchell described the videos as "pretty woeful", while Mr Merlino labelled them "cringeworthy" and "confusing".

"I think it's a missed opportunity about an issue that is really important…They want it to be explicit…I don't really see the benefit of a milkshake or a taco metaphor," Ms Mitchell said.

"I've got to be frank with you, I was pretty disappointed," Acting Premier James Merlino said of the video.

"It was confusing. It was cringeworthy, it did not hit the mark."

Mr Merlino said he won't be recommending them to Victorian schools.

Advertising expert Dee Madigan described the milkshake video as "six minutes of WTF" in an appearance on Today this morning.

"If you're talking to teenagers the last thing you want to do is treat them like they're little children," Madigan, who has worked on Labor election campaigns in the past, said.

"You know, a milkshake analogy and smearing it over the face is just – it is weird, but the weirdest thing is they've made the female the abuser and we know statistically, that is highly unlikely.

"After everything we've seen in Canberra, to make the woman the problem, just seems tone deaf."

Madigan said the government needed to completely needed to rethink their campaign strategy.

"A whole video about sexual assault and consent that doesn't mention the word "sex" just seems crazy," she said.

"Treat a 16-year-old or a 15-year-old like they're not an idiot, because they're not. And talk to them about actual body parts and what this means and what that means. Have a really open, honest discussion with them.

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Australian hay growers could be the next major industry frozen out by China, with Canberra-Beijing relations yet to thaw since a year-long diplomatic spat over the origins of the coronavirus.

Australia's hay exports to China, valued at $160 million annually, have practically ground to a halt this year, as dozens of crucial export permits which lapsed two months ago are still to be renewed by Beijing.

With China buying about one-third of the 1.2 million tonnes of hay that Australia exports across the world each year, the pause in trade is hurting.

READ MORE: China hits Australian wine exports with five more years of tariffs

When it's business as usual, Australia has 28 hay exporting companies with permits who are able to ship bales of hay to China.

But on February 28, 25 of those permits lapsed.

Now just three smaller operators whose licenses are still valid are exporting to China, at least until their permits also expire.

Australian suppliers are trying not to panic, an insider whose export company represents growers told nine.com.au. The insider wished to remain anonymous.

But, if the permits were left dead in the water, he acknowledged the industry faced taking a substantial hit.

"China is a big player," the insider said.

He said Australian exporters were currently framing the problem as an administrative issue, not some kind of ongoing ban or blockade.

"At the moment China has not re-registered a number of permits, it could just be a backlog."

The situation was "not necessarily uncommon," he said, but added "we have found adding oxygen to the discussion is not always helpful."

Munro Patchett, the general manager of Gilmac, Australia's largest hay exporter, was also not jumping to the worst possible conclusion, that China has slammed the door on his industry's face.

"They haven't got around to renewing the permits for whatever reason," he said.

Mr Patchett said Aussie exporters and the Federal Government had completed all necessary paperwork six months ago, to ensure a smooth rollover of permits.

But China's General Administration of Customs (CGAC) are yet to grant the permits.

Mr Patchett said CGAC agents would normally travel to packing plants to carry out a series of compliance inspections before renewing a permit, and that international coronavirus travel restrictions could have created the unexplained delay.

"Maybe that is part of it," he said.

READ MORE: Aussie cherries labelled 'inferior' by China, growers worried

Since Australia backed calls to investigate the origins of coronavirus in Wuhan, Beijing has blocked a raft of Australian exports, including barley, beef, wine, lobsters and coal.

The industry insider who spoke with nine.com.au said that hay destined for China would not simply be hoovered up by other export markets, like barley and some other Australian products which had been cut loose by China had.

Other key global hay markets for Australian suppliers include Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and the Middle East.

"Hay is not like barley. Barley has a better liquidity and can go to different markets more easily," he said.

Losing China would "not be good for our customers or our industry".

Mr Munro told nine.com.au if the suspension were to continue then Australian farmers will need to cut back on making hay, otherwise oversupply would create a "glut" in the market and cause prices to dip.

"We don't want too much hay in production if China is suddenly not taking a third of our exports."

Hay not exported this year would carry over into 2022, Mr Munro said.

READ MORE: China trade sanctions 'failing to cripple Australian economy'

Australian industries which have been targeted in the trade standoff with Beijing totalled about $29 billion in 2019.

The total value of these exports to China in the three months to January 2021 was about $5.5 billion a year – a huge decline.

Wine exports had dropped to less than $1 million in January, from a high of $164 million last October.

China remains Australia's largest trading partner, making up 30 per cent of exports.

Contact: ms******@******om.au

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