Paula Luethen, of Bestlife for Children, used the charity's Red and White Dinner Dance to emphasise just how important it was to talk about the issue of child abuse and raise awareness.

"The key thing I would like everyone to help with is to actually help make our community safer for children to grow up in so they can actually live a full life and not have to grow up affected by abuse," Ms Luethen said.

"One in three female children and one in six male children in Australia are sexually abused by the time they are 18. And I don't think anybody should accept that. It needs to change."

Ms Luethen said in NSW there was a mandated child protection curriculum that could teach children about appropriate touch, inappropriate touch and what their private parts were.

She said it was designed to give them a safe place to speak up.

But she was concerned because anecdotal evidence from parents and teachers suggested it was not implemented effectively.

"So I asked everyone in this room if they would go and ask one teacher or one principal if they are teaching this curriculum. And if they are not, to ask why not. And if they say they are, to ask if they can observe it being taught.

"My story was that I did not find out until I was 12 that what happened to me growing up should not have happened and that it was abuse."

Ms Luethen said if schools across Australia taught such a message it would help many children speak up sooner and stop it.

She said if children found out earlier what was right and wrong and said something about it, they would be able to start to heal sooner and be able to live a more normal life.

"The second point I made was that people often hear that if someone is a survivor of childhood abuse that they might have lifelong adverse developmental impacts and take extra risks.

"But there is also a second form of survivor that dissociate from the pain, the feeling and the experience and became workaholics and perfectionists. These people can often study very hard, work very hard, constantly achieve goals and be seen in senior positions," she said.

"And that was me up until a couple of years ago. I had a really successful corporate career. But then a successful coaching session in my 40s triggered my childhood memories."

When she was asked what made her angry, she said "children being hurt" and that lifted the lid on her own childhood.

That caused her to change her career for a purpose.

She went from being a leader in the banking and finance industry to serve as a councillor in her community in South Australia.

"I am trying to make change for our community and help people get their voices heard," she said.

"I try to lobby for the child protection curriculum and education. I am using all those leadership skills but now for the benefit of the community."

Ms Luethen encourages everyone to talk because she says one conversation at a time can gradually create positive change.

"For example, there are only three states in Australia that have the curriculum mandated, NSW, South Australia and ACT, but none of those three states effectively have it implemented and it is not mandated in any of the other states," she said.

The dinner dance was supported by the Lagoon Seafood Restaurant and the theme of the night was innocence, courage, strength and hope.