Legal Brothels in Australia

Banning brothels in residential areas would be a welcome first step to curbing prostitution, though laws need to go further by making it illegal to pay for sex, Perth's Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey says.

He supports the so-called Swedish model, which makes buying sex and brothel ownership illegal, rather than prostitution itself.

Attorney-General Christian Porter is working towards delivering the Government's election promise to ban prostitution outside designated zones but has rejected calls from some Not So Liberal backbenchers to adopt the Swedish model on the basis that he did not support a system which punished only the men who bought sex. He was prepared to consider introducing tougher penalties for men caught buying sexual services outside designated areas.

Archbishop Hickey said men had to be held responsible for what was effectively a form of abuse against women: (Under the Swedish system), at least men will get a different message than the one they are getting at the moment, which is almost encouragement.

With the celebration of Don Dunstan's legacy with Don's party it is timely to examine why South Australia has gone from being the most progressive social reform state to the most regressive, vindictive and anti-sex.

The achievements of Don's era are of course legendary, among them Don's fashion statements signifying diversity, standing up to bigots by holding back a fundamentalist-called-for tsunami at Glenelg, eradicating the Pink Files, and creating three nude beaches. Even the Liberals were progressive with Steele Hall's government reforming the gerrymander and Murray Hill introducing a bill legalising homosexual acts.

In Adelaide, even the word “sex” has been censored on roadside billboards. Atheists are prevented from advertising on state buses. South Australia is the only state left where prostitution is illegal. It has the highest age of consent of any state.

The Rann Government is becoming increasingly fascist-like. A representative of the Catholic Church is an unelected member of Cabinet. More and more legislation requires accused persons to prove their innocence rather than the prosecution having to prove their guilt.

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Western Australia is set to legalise prostitution in a bid to improve health standards and keep brothels out of residential areas.

Hundreds of suburban brothels are expected to close when WA Attorney-General Christian Porter ends decades of turning a blind eye and starts regulating the sex industry next year.

Prostitution is illegal in WA but police rarely lay charges unless they are related to underage sex or unsafe practices.

After nearly two years in power Porter says he is working to release a paper for public comment by the end of the year and introduce legislation into parliament in 2011.

Under the new legislation, brothels will be licensed and confined to designated commercial and industrial areas, and police will be given powers to investigate and forcibly close those which fail to comply.

Sex businesses will need to follow health and safety standards to obtain and maintain their licences. Individual sex workers will need to register with a central agency and will undergo compulsory health and blood checks. They may also be required to carry ID cards.

Porter said suburban operators would be given a grace period from next year to either close or move to a licensed area. Applications for brothels would first be put to local councils and then assessed by state regulators.

WA brothel madams welcomed the move over the weekend but feared the bid to register individual prostitutes would drive some underground. While most agreed the new regulations would improve health and safety in the industry, they said some sex workers would be loathe to have their personal records on file.

Prostitution laws in the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) will be reviewed for the first time since being introduced 18 years ago.

The review has been partially prompted by a letter from a coroner who conducted the inquest into the death of 17-year-old Janine Cameron who was found dead in a Fyshwick brothel two years ago.

Attorney General Simon Corbell says the coroner's comments will form part of the terms of reference for the review: Whilst the coroner made no adverse findings in relation to that matter, the coroner has drawn to my attention his view that it would be worthwhile for the Government to look at the issue of proof of age and to make sure people working in brothels were requiring a higher level of proof age and identity before they commenced work.

Corbell says the Government remains committed to a regulated sex industry: It's a good thing. It keeps it out in the open. It keeps it public and transparent and it stops black market and illegal activities occurring within the industry.

But there are I think areas for some potential improvement. Those include issues potentially around proof of age to make sure people who are working in the industry are appropriately demonstrating that they are 18 years or older.

There may be other issues arising as well that stakeholders want to express a view on and this review will allow that to occur.

The Government will move a motion in the Legislative Assembly next month referring the Prostitution Act 1992 to a committee.

The Opposition has welcomed the move. Shadow attorney general Vicki Dunne said: There have been issues raised as to whether or not individual sex workers should have registration, compliance inspections and the level of police activity around brothels in the ACT and what developments there may have been both interstate and overseas that have moved on public discussion about the regulation of prostitution.

Legislative Assembly Member Christian Porter is confident the drafted prostitution reforms will be able to completely eradicate prostitution in Western Australia suburbs.

The reforms, which Porter expects to go back before Parliament in the first half of the year, would see brothels banned from all residential areas and be only allowed to operate within industrial zones.

Under the reform, police would be given more power to shut down brothels operating illegally within suburban areas.

Porter said he was hopeful the reform would reduce the amount of customers to brothels:

One part of the legislation is that, where there is an unlawful brothel, we would target not only the prostitutes who are unlawfully operating and the owners who are unlawfully operating, but we would also target customers with criminal penalty infringement notices for first offences and then prosecutions after that, so we're targeting all of them.

However, Porter said regardless of what measures were taken, prostitution could not be eradicated completely, which was why reforms such as this were needed to be put into place.

Brothels in WA have always existed and are likely to always exist despite our best efforts and the fact is that at the moment, prostitution is in effect illegal, but we still have brothels.

What we have to do is corral them into areas where they cause the least amount of damage and destruction to average, law-abiding West Australians. We're going to mean business in the suburbs.

Sex work is legal in the state of Victoria (of which Melbourne is the capital) and that this legality has well-researched public health benefits.

In order to be legal sex work, sex workers must be consenting and over the age of 18. In Victoria (other Australian states have different laws), legal sex work takes place in licensed brothels or through licensed escort agencies. Independent sex workers can work legally outside a brothel or agency, but they must have a small business permit. Street-based sex work does occur, but is not legal.

Here are a few things I've learned about legalizing sex work.

1. Legalizing sex work reduces STIs for sex workers and, by extension, their clients.
2. Legalizing sex work reduces, but does not eliminate, stigma and discrimination.
3. Getting input from sex workers themselves drives positive outcomes [such as improved distribution of information and support for the police to combat trafficking and coercion].

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A South Australian Labor MP has launched another bid to decriminalise prostitution, the latest in a handful of attempts to reform sex worker laws over the past 30 years.

Steph Key will later this year introduce a bill to decriminalise all forms of prostitution, including home or brothel-based sex work, escort services and street work.

It will also ban minors from being involved in the industry and will prevent brothels being established within 200 metres of schools, any centres for children and places of worship. It seems to be an appropriate time to put the reform of our sex industry in SA back on the legislative agenda, Ms Key said. She said there had been five attempts to introduce reforms over the past three decades, the last being voted down in 2001.

But Christian nutters of FamilyVoice Australia said there had actually been six attempts to decriminalise brothels since 1979, with each attempt failing once MPs realised the implications of the changes. Steph Key's latest attempt to decriminalise brothels is worse than any of the previous six, FamilyVoice researcher Ros Phillips said: One of its disastrous features would allow three prostitutes to operate a brothel next to suburban homes without any controls by government or police.

Supporting Ms Key's bill, about 50 sex workers and their supporters rallied on the steps of parliament house in Adelaide on Thursday and presented the MP with a 2000-signature petition backing law reform.

Sex Industry Network manager Ari Reid said sex workers in South Australia were still treated like second-class citizens: Decriminalisation isn't about putting a brothel on every corner. It's about providing basic workplace rights and protection for hard-working South Australians.

Western Australia Attorney General Christian Porter said that under the new Prostitution Bill 2011, brothels would be banned from suburban areas.

Limited prostitution in non-suburban residential areas would be licensed and monitored.

The Government will also create an exit fund for prostitutes seeking to leave the industry.

Attorney General Christian Porter said the Bill had been carefully developed after the release of a draft for community consultation earlier this year. He said:

Prostitution is a controversial issue for any Government to address. Overwhelmingly though, ordinary West Australians do not want prostitution businesses of any size near their homes, in their residential suburbs or near their children's school.

Update: A Dangerous Step Backwards for Health Promotion

18th November 2011.See article from sexparty.org.au

The Australian Sex Party has called the WA Prostitution Bill a dangerous step backwards in health promotion. The 2011 Bill, introduced into WA Parliament by Attorney General Christian Porter last week, was developed without proper consultation with sex workers or sex worker organisations, and acts in direct opposition to the health safety, and best interests of sex workers.

Sex Party Candidate Zahra Stardust says This Bill will severely increase sex workers' likelihood of harassment, vilification and imprisonment and decrease their access to health and support services.

The Bill bans sex work in residential or suburban areas and prohibits escort agencies, forcing sex workers into brothels. The Bill then requires sex workers to disclose their legal names in the workplace, meaning that sex workers are singled out for surveillance, restricting their opportunities for employment and further education and introducing bias in custody cases. The WA Bill criminalises the clients of sex workers, despite international evidence that this has severe consequences on the safety of sex workers themselves. The Bill criminalises all street-based sex workers, despite no evidence that they cause adverse societal impact.

The Bill increases police power, despite the finding of the Woods Royal Commission that systemic corruption and misuse of personal information is rife when police act as sex industry regulators. Ms Stardust says, Police powers to issue move-on notices, stop, detain and search anyone on suspicion that they have breached the law, and to order invasive cavity searches of sex workers, mean that sex workers will be unlikely to seek police assistance in the event of a crime.

She continues, The Bill will be disastrous for sex workers occupational health and safety and industrial rights, as an unlicensed sex worker under the Bill is expressly excluded from accessing Workers' Compensation. The Bill also prohibits advertising for any staff relating to sex work services, preventing sex workers from advertising for drivers, receptionists or security. This will clearly present obstacles to sex workers' health, safety and access to support.'

Further, the Bill criminalises all migrant sex workers, providing that a licence can only be issued to an Australian citizen or permanent resident. This means that sex workers on student or temporary visas are immediately rendered illegal, subject to heavy penalties, experience reduced access to health services, are denied access to peer education programs and are increasingly marginalised. The Bill introduces heavy penalties (up to 3 years imprisonment) and fines (up to $50,000) for non-compliance.

Low rates of STIs and HIV among sex workers illustrate that sex workers are highly aware of safer sex practices and are skilled at negotiating and managing risks. The recent Law and Sexual Health (LASH) study in Western Australia by the Kirby Institute states that health promotion for the sex industry is much easier when the target group is not covert and is working without the daily fear of a criminal prosecution. Similarly, the World Health Organisation acknowledges that 'Legislation criminalising prostitution-related activities has frequently been identified as a barrier to the promotion of safer sex practices'.'