“I can hardly speak what vitriol … need to catch my breath and consider what to say, such incitement to hatred..”
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The above statement was made by a sex worker in response to an article which appeared in The Sunday Telegraph (article can be found below). The tone and language used in the article was over the top and biased which sex workers find insulting and fear it carries the very real potential for inciting hatred and violence.
Sex workers would also appreciate if journalists could make the effort to get their facts straight. It is not illegal for a sex worker to solict on the streets in NSW unless it is done “near or within view from a dwelling, school, church or hospital…” (see – Summary Offences Act 1988 No 25: 19 Soliciting clients by prostitutes). NAUWU feels The Sunday Telegraph should print an apology to the Daily Telegraph readers for failing to research yet another article properly and again printing misinformation about the legality of this activity.
Members of NAUWU and other sex workers are now involved in a campaign to try and get an apology printed by The Sunday Telegraph including writing letters, leaving comments under the article and responding on the author’s Twitter. So far we have had no response and only 1 comment pointing out the correct legal facts and asking for fair an unbiased reporting has been approved and published.
Below you will find the article, responses sent to NAUWU by sex workers who had tried to leave a comment on the article which were not approved and the contact details of the “journalist” who wrote the article. NAUWU would like to encourage you to either contact the author, leave a comment under this post or send us an email with your comment to: nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com
Underbelly: Razor’s myth hides the ugly truth
- Claire Harvey
- From: The Sunday Telegraph
- August 28, 2011 12:00AM

The gorgeous actors in Underbelly Razor make prostitution look a lot of fun. Picture: Channel Nine. Source: The Sunday Telegraph
SEEN the gorgeous hookers in Underbelly: Razor?
Silk-satin dressing gowns, rosebud lips popping with bright red colour, pin curls, those elegant little kitten-heeled bedroom slippers I’ve always wanted a pair of those. They make prostitution look pretty nice.
What a great big fib that is and how galling that the horrible lie of glamorous sex work persists into 2011.
This week, as scandal hung like a 1930s soot cloud over federal Labor MP Craig Thomson and Prime Minister Julia Gillard, I’ve been baffled by the way the debate’s been framed.
If you listen to the political commentary on this affair, Thomson’s greatest alleged wrongdoing which he denies is supposed to be the misuse of union funds.
I think there’s another, much more serious and damaging element of the allegations that Mr Thomson’s credit card was used by someone other than him to pay for the services of prostitutes and escorts.
I think using prostitutes the most exploitative and damaging commercial transactions anyone can undertake. Sex workers are the most vulnerable people in the Australian economy. There is nothing glamorous about their work or their lives.
Craig Thomson deserves the presumption of innocence. He has denied the claims against him, which boil down to this: while he was working for the Health Services Union, he allegedly used his union credit cards to pay for prostitution and other services.
Thomson has previously claimed someone else, whom he refuses to name, used the cards and forged his signature. He has not revealed how that person got access to his drivers licence, which was listed on some of the card receipts.
On the request of the union, and after much urging from the federal opposition, police are now investigating whether there is any case to be made from the alleged fraudulent misuse of union funds.
The Health Services Union represents the working underclass of Australia hospital cleaners, aged-care staff, disability support workers.
Somebody – and Craig Thomson won’t tell us who – used their money to pay for prostitutes. That, I believe, is the real scandal here.
Let me be clear: I am not suggesting prostitution laws should be changed.
In NSW it is no longer a criminal offence to conduct paid sex work in brothels or private homes, although it is still illegal to solicit on the street.
I think that’s the right balance - it’s inevitable that sex work will go on regardless of anyone’s attempts to ban it. You know the old cliché, prostitution is the oldest profession.
Prohibition generally does little except create a new and wealthier class of criminal, as author Larry Writer so eloquently demonstrated in his book Razor, upon which the present Underbelly series is based.
One of the star characters is Ellen “Nellie” Cameron, a beautiful and fiery prostitute who, according to common myth of the 1920s and`30s, loved sex so much she abandoned her privileged Sydney life to become a hooker. I heard an acquaintance repeat this myth just the other day as we sat chatting a bar He thought Nellie sounded pretty cool.
The cold truth, as Writer documented, was that Cameron lived a sad and violent life, full of drugs, cruelty and intimidation that characterised wild Razorhurst.
She was repeatedly beaten, shot and stabbed by clients, loversqland enemies. At least five of her lovers and husbands were murdered in gang hits. Cameron herself committed suicide at the age of 43.
Today the organisations that represent sex workers, including the Scarlet Alliance, say NSW’s legal framework helps encourage safe sex and fair employment conditions, helping reduce the risk of abuse by clients or police intimidation.
Despite that, sex workers are still at a much higher risk of sexual assault than the rest of the community, with perpetrators including clients, employers and people in their everyday lives who believe that because they sell sex for a living they have no right to say no.
Study after study, including the research of Dr Antonia Quadara of the Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault, reveals up to 60 per cent of prostitutes have been raped and many feel police do not take their complaints or fears seriously.
I am not suggesting that the person who used Mr Thomson’s credit card raped, assaulted or abused anyone.
I have every sympathy for the sex workers themselves, and I’m grateful we live in an age when they are no longer at risk of criminal charges for their work.
But legality does not make prostitution any less dangerous or exploitative. It does not make it right or fair. It certainly doesn’t make it glamorous.
No man would want his daughter to become a sex worker but it’s rare to hear anyone saying it’s morally reprehensible, or hypocritical, to pay someone else’s daughter for emotionless sex.
So I’m saying it. I think visiting prostitutes is wrong. I hate the idea union members’ funds were used to pay for such services.
And I hope Underbelly goes on to tell the true story of Nellie Cameron and her fellow prostitutes: they were raped and abused and mistreated, the pawns in a violent criminal game that goes on today.
Sex worker responses
Other sex worker have sent their response to NAUWU after they read the article and tried to post a response on The Sunday Telegraph’s comments section. Their comments were not published, however we are proud to be able to give all sex workers a voice here:
Comments on this article apart from ****’s are disgusting. Took me 10 minutes and a shower to calm down enough to write a rational response.
After reading the Razor editorial in the “TERROR” today , I am perplexed as to why the journalist employed at the Telegraph are in such denial of the fact that their employer is also living of the earnings of PROSTITUTION .
The daily Telegraph Adult Services section is a very lucrative business , and after doing the math , I’m sure the revenue earned by this section would keep the many journalist employed at news.com.
Perhaps the Labor MP Craig Thompson found the Tiffany advert in Telegraphs Adult Services section ???,such HYPOCRISY ” People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” .
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“You say you have sympathy for sex workers, yet you write with a tone that perpetuates hate.You’re sorry we have to deal with you?”
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If you would like to contact the author of this article, her contact details follow:
Claire Harvey
9288 3329 or 0424 359 879
@chmharvey (Twitter)
Australian Christian Lobby
Just on a final note, we thought we’d mention that Claire Harvey’s article also featured on the website for the Australian Christian Lobby…..
http://australianchristianlobby.org.au/2011/08/pick-of-the-news-%E2%80%93-monday-august-29-2011/
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