France says ‘non merci’ to prostitutes ABC News 07.12.11

International Media, Media No Responses » Tagged with: France, international media, Law Reform, Legal, Media, Swedish Model

Jan 182012

France says ‘non merci’ to prostitutes

ABC News
December 07, 2011
Meredith Griffiths

The French National Assembly has passed a resolution saying France should seek ‘a society without prostitution’, and that sex work ‘should in no case be designated as a professional activity’. The Assembly is now expected to introduce a bill criminalising payment for sex. Under the new law, clients would be jailed for six months, or fined nearly $4,000.

ELEANOR HALL: Some of the country’s public figures may have a reputation for womanising but in the French National Assembly, politicians are talking about a plan to outlaw prostitution.

And while the sex workers’ union is rallying outside the Parliament against the proposed changes, some of the pressure for abolition is coming from men’s groups.

Meredith Griffiths has our report.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: It’s the country that produced the famous prostitutes Belle de Jour and Nana, but France is now making it illegal to pay for sex.

Guy Geoffroy is a member of the right wing government.

GUY GEOFFROY (translated): What we want is for the National Assembly to speak out in a strong and solemn way on the principle of an abolition of prostitution and on everything that should help it in today’s society.

Better help for the prostitutes to get out of prostitution with real, credible alternatives, to be able to regain their dignity in society.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: He’s also part of a cross-party commission that moved the resolution saying France should seek “a society without prostitution”.

It adds that sex work “should in no case be designated as a professional activity”.

The French National Assembly is now expected to introduce a bill criminalising payment for sex.

Clients would be jailed for six months or fined nearly $4,000.

Jacques Myard is another right-wing member of the commission.

JACQUES MYARD: It’s good to try to eradicate prostitution in terms of human being exploitation. That means those who force women to prostitute should be punished and that very hard.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The commission says nine prostitutes out of 10 are victims of human trafficking but sex workers protesting outside the National Assembly disagreed

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Some sex workers say the law will penalise them but leave pimps and organised crime networks untouched.

SEX WORKER (translated): We’re not all part of those networks. Let them tackle the networks efficiently and to the end but let go of people like me who for years have paid tax, who were recognised as prostitutes and who now have only 417 euros in pension pay.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Bronwyn Winter is an Associate Professor of French at the University of Sydney.

She says the proposed new bill is in line with an existing law in France that makes it illegal to solicit clients or operate brothels.

BRONWYN WINTER: Which has actually been used to penalise women in prostitution rather than the client, so that’s actually been disadvantageous to prostitution. So there’s a bit of a double standard going on.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: Does this surprise you? It’s sort of seemed that France had been a country that had very liberal attitudes towards sex.

BRONWYN WINTER: Well I think we need to make a distinction between sex and prostitution, I don’t think we’re talking at all about the same thing. Prostitution is a very specific way of constructing sexuality which is commodifying sex.

BRONWYN WINTER: Professor Winter says abolitionist movements have been pressuring the French government for a long time but she says it’s back on the agenda because of recent news of a prostitution ring running out of a luxury hotel in Lille.

And people have been talking a lot about Dominique Strauss-Kahn since he was accused of raping a chamber maid in New York.

BRONWYN WINTER: Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the actions around Dominique Strauss-Kahn have put violence against women, prostitution, rape back on the agenda and a lot of feminists have been making the links between those things.

MEREDITH GRIFFITHS: The National Assembly is expected to consider the next bill in the coming days. It’s a debate that will be keenly watched by the estimated 20,000 prostitutes in France.

ELEANOR HALL: Meredith Griffiths reporting

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-07/france-says-non-merci-to-prostitutes/3718072

Scarlet Road wins The Sydney Morning Herald’s Couch Potato Award for 2011

Australian Media, Media, NAUWU and our Peers No Responses » Tagged with: Australian Media, disability, Media, Rachel Wotton, Scarlet Road

Dec 202011

CONGRATULATIONS

Scarlet Road!

Scarlet Road has won the Sydney Morning Herald’s The Couch Potato Award for 2011

Here is an excerpt from the page announcing the award:

“Local documentary feature
Winner Scarlet Road (SBS)
Readers’ choice 50 Years Four Corners (ABC)

There has been a tendency for the winner in this category to have screened in the weeks before judging, suggesting recent memory is stronger than long-term memory. And this year’s winner is no exception, having screened just days before our meeting.

It is, however, a deserving winner for its gentle strength and persuasiveness in the cause it promotes. Scarlet Road (SBS) is a courageous, sensitive program about a woman who provides sexual services and intimate therapy to the disabled. It is tastefully told, both from her perspective and that of her clients.

Online reaction was favourable but a minority insisted it was prurient, depraved and sordid. This suggests some viewers prefer denial to reality and expect their denial should apply to those deprived of sexual intimacy because of a physical disability. Or perhaps it’s simple envy.

We also saw merit in Mrs Carey’s Concert (ABC), Trafficked – The Reckoning (SBS) and 50 Years Four Corners (ABC). Doug Anderson”

For details on all the awards, please check this page here:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/the-couch-potato-awards-20111219-1p19i.html#ixzz1gxuZvF00

Note: NAUWU makes every effort to ensure the quality of the information available on this website. Before relying on the information on this site, however, users should carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. NAUWU cannot guarantee and assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, currency or completeness of the information.

Disclaimer: Images used on this site have been used with the permission of all parties pictured. If you happen to find an image of yourself and do not wish for it to appear on http://www.nothing-about-us-without-us.com please let the webperson of this site know by contacting nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com .

Contributions on http://www.nothing-about-us-without-us.com have been made by NSW Sex Workers and other concerned parties of NSW Sex Industry; site design and maintenance by nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com ; Copyright Nothing About Us Without Us 2009 – 2020

NAUWU has decided to take further action to hold The Australian Broadcasting Corporation accountable for their inaccurate and biased media coverage of the Four Corners program which aired on Monday 10th October 2011.

The link to the broadcast can be found here:
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2011/10/06/3333668.htm

NAUWU and the wider sex working communities response to the program can be found here:
http://nothing-about-us-without-us.com/media-campaign-trafficking-and-regulation-in-australia/

NAUWU, its members and other sex workers we have spoken to are outraged by the program because the ABC’s actions have been DAMAGING! We have therefore actioned the complaints process to hold The ABC accountable. By submitting complaints we do not expect an immediate apology as the sex working community were ignored and submissions from peer based organisation to provide The ABC with accurate information rejected.

We feel strongly however that The ABC should at the very least realise the impact of what they’ve done and better, we intend to assist them to realise they need to make amends.

We are also concerned since the program went to air, there has been media from different sources including Channel 10 and print media that follows the same logic, uses the same analogies the Four Corners program did and has sourced Four Corners in their coverage. The ABC went into parntership with FairFax media to initially promote the Four Corners program and this seems to have had a flow on effect to the wider media.

NAUWU submitted a complaint to The ABC and Four Corners outlining just a few of the key issues we had with the program. Please see below for a copy of our initial complaint and the emails that followed between NAUWU and The ABC:

NAUWU Complaint to 4 Corners_Final_25.10.11

26 Oct 2011

A complaint to 4 Corners

Nothing About Us Without Us is an unfunded, volunteer, loose collective of sex workers who formed to ensure a sex worker voice in maintained in the efforts to keep, defend and create the decriminalisation of sex work in NSW.

We believe your reporting of trafficking for sex work in Australia was unethical, without conscience, against the best interests of migrant workers in Australia, shortsighted and incredibly damaging to the sex worker community in Australia.

1) Police corruption and DIAC harassment of sex workers as a result of your story.

We do not believe that you “uncovered” “trafficking” in the course of your “investigation.”

We believe the incidents alleged to be “trafficking” by you were not actual cases of trafficking. We know that you know that these particular incidents were about as far from trafficking as anything could be in Australia; with the only commonality with actual trafficking cases t in Australia being that they involved individual sex workers of Asian backgrounds on work visas who identify as female. Yet since the 4 Corners program sex workers in a number of jurisdictions have alleged to us that Australian Federal Police are conducting raids on sex worker workplaces asking to find “sex slaves” and “trafficking” — knowing that there is none going on.

Let us rephrase.

We know that corrupt police, allegedly those within the Australian Federal Police, are taking advantage of the media hype and political uncertainty following the 4 Corners “investigation,” to harass, pressure, and conduct spoof raids on premises that they know, as a result of their own intelligence, are not linked to any such activity, but that they know they can get away with because of the momentum as a result of the 4 Corners reporting.

We also know that DIAC have, as a result of your show, taken advantage of the political climate, and moved in on hundreds of workplaces to check and cancel Visa’s if people are even one step out of line with the arbitrary visa conditions under which they are travelling.

Do you understand that we always see a spike in corrupt activity following sensationalist high profile media coverage of these issues? Do you understand that we always see a spike in aggressive DIAC targeting of sex work workplaces following sensationalist high profile media coverage of these issues?

Was this your intention as a result of your report?

We demand an apology from 4 Corners for unwittingly contributing to police corruption and sex worker harassment by DIAC.

2) Support for the criminalisation of sex work and the expansion of police powers as a result of your story.

Decriminalisation is the best legal framework for sex work, it has created a landscape of transparency and access to justice for sex workers in New South Wales and the ACT that is unmatched across the rest of Australia. You did not investigate this in your report.

Regardless, in the wake of the 4 Corners reporting, the increased criminalisation of sex work and increased police powers proposed in Victoria and New South Wales have all been announced, under the cover of the unfounded “allegations” made by 4 Corners.

4 Corners interviewed a sex worker who was in contact with an abolitionist anti-sex work group in Taiwan. That sex worker had wanted to come to Australia to do sex work, and has a legal right to migrate here and do so, but was deceived about their work conditions and exploited while they were here. This is not evidence of the need for criminalisation of sex work or increased police powers in Australia. It is evidence of increasing need for sex worker peer education services to be expanded to reach even more sex workers and let migrant sex workers know about their human rights.

4 Corners did not interview VIXEN or RhED in Victoria, SWOP NSW, SWOP NT, SWOP ACT, Magenta in WA, SIN in South Australia, Respect Inc in Queensland or Scarlet Alliance (national and in Tasmania). 4 Corners did not approach the Sex Workers Union and did not approach us. 4 Corners instead interviewed a tiny abolitionist, anti-sex work group in Melbourne, and a discredited Greens local politician, who ran through a series of trafficking “figures” that we all know are bullshit. This biased reporting is not evidence of the need for criminalisation of sex work or increased police powers in Australia.

4 Corners did not interview COSWAS in Taiwan, Zi Teng in Hong Kong, Giant Girls in South Korea, Empower in Thailand, or any of the other sex worker groups in Asia. This is further evidence of your biased reporting. This is not evidence of the need for criminalisation of sex work or increased police powers in Australia.

4 Corners interviewed the parents of a man who died in a murderous crime committed in relation to brothel violence in Victoria. We are sorry that man was killed. No one should be murdered. However, this is not evidence of the need for criminalisation of sex work or increased police powers in Australia. In fact, police already have massive powers in Victoria. To expand them would be totally ludicrous.

Yet Governments in Victoria and NSW are now responding to public pressure as a result of the 4 Corners program and using it to excuse their (already formulated) policies to increase police powers, criminalise sex work, and strip us of our human rights in those states.

Does 4 Corners intend to sit by and watch while our rights as sex workers are drained from each state and territory on the basis of your report?

We demand 4 Corners make a public statement that they did not intend to provide political support for Victoria or New South Wales in either the repeal of decriminalisation or increasing police powers, as this was not in the scope of your “investigation” and not an outcome that could be linked to the “findings” of the 4 Corners program.

3) “Bad” whore vs “Good” victim dichotomy.

Your show was not saved by the rhetorical intellectual bullshit sprouted by Mr Kerry O’Brien at the beginning of the show. In fact is simply exposes your lack of leg work on this issue. His introduction implied that it was ok to only take the abolitionist point of view because you weren’t talking about whores, you were only talking about victims. We feel sorry that someone wrote such a script for Kerry, perhaps he didn’t realise he was being the political patsy to your biased reporting and the political fall out that was about to ensue.

Let us educate you.

There are no “good” victims. There are no “bad” whores.

Perhaps you have missed the last 25 years of the sex worker rights movement but there is more academic deconstruction of this myth than there is evidence in all the schlock reporting ever done in Australia on mythical trafficking victim stereotyping.

We are not a species to be catalogued and separated in test tubes as a result of your prejudices and whorephobia.

A sex worker who faces bad work conditions and exploitation is still a sex worker deserving of human rights and dignity.

The incessant pathologisation of individuals who have experienced trafficking-like work conditions has poisoned Australian trafficking policy to the point and created serious human rights barriers to those who are brave enough to come forward and report trafficking crimes. Yet Kerrys introduction purpetuates this “good victim” “bad whore” myth and the bad policies it props up.

For example, magistrates making their witness protection visa’s conditional on them not doing sex work while awaiting a trial.

Or people affected by trafficking like situations being told that the stamp in their passport makes it illegal now for them ever to return to Australia to do sex work.

Or migrant sex workers being told by Dept of Immigration that due to Australian trafficking law migrants cannot legally work here.

All of these actions by authorities in Australia are based on the myth that Kerry so confidently trotted out at the beginning of your show.

This logic is like telling a person who got held up in a bank robbery that they can never legally have a bank account again.

Or telling a person who was injured during a car crash that for their own good they can now no longer legally have a drivers license. Or ever travel again in a moving vehicle.

Or, as New Zealand has done, criminalise ALL sex workers who are not New Zealand citizens. For “their own good.”

Your show, its ridiculous promotions, shady re-dramatisations of imaginary events, exploitation of a dead mans parents’ grief and hopeful imaginations of their “heroic” son, use of quotes from Jennifer Burns on the advertising saying that most Australians don’t realise the extent of slavery when Jennifer was talking about slavery that does not occur in sex work yet you used to quote as if to say that she meant sex work, spooky music, your use of a spokesperson who has been discredited so many times we can’t even believe you bothered to interview them in the first place (and we all know who that is) and the fact that you couldn’t even fit into the story ONE counterpoint of view, leads us to demand:

That you remove the promotions, text, and full copy of your 4 Corners program on trafficking for sex work from the ABC website in an effort to prevent further damage and misinformation on this issue.

And that

Sally Neighbour and Kerry O’Brien be required to undergo a full weeks training on sex worker human rights issues, including trainers from Empower Foundation in Thailand, at the ABC’s expense, to ensure that this misguided “helping” of sex workers, which has actually irrevocably damaged migrant sex worker human rights and any possible useful trafficking policies in this country, doesn’t happen at the ABC again.

Yours sincerely,

A group of very angry sex workers

On behalf of Nothing About Us Without Us
nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com
http://www.nothing-about-us-without-us.com

CC: Consumer Affairs Victoria
CC: VIXEN
CC: RhED
CC: Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association
CC: CopWatch Melbourne

After submitting the complaint NAUWU waited two weeks for a response and when one was not forthcoming we contacted The ABC again requesting a response. We received this reply:

From: ABC Corporate_Affairs5 <Corporate_Affairs5.ABC@abc.net.au>
Date: Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 3:11 PM
Subject: Sex worker rights and Trafficking media
To: “nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com” <nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com>

Dear nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com

I refer to your email below.

Your complaint is being investigated and you can expect a substantive response in due course. The ABC has 60 days in which to investigate and respond to complaints alleging a breach of its editorial standards. We do endeavour to respond to complaints within 30 days, but occasionally the sheer volume of correspondence received by the ABC means it may sometimes take longer.

Regards

Audience and Consumer Affairs

NAUWU on the 16th November received this response from The ABC

On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 11:33 AM,
ABC Corporate_Affairs11 <CORPORATE_AFFAIRS11.ABC@abc.net.au> wrote:

Dear Nothing About Us Without Us collective

Thank you for your email concerning the Four Corners program “Sex Slavery”.

As your correspondence raised concerns of a lack of accuracy and objectivity, your email was referred to Audience and Consumer Affairs for consideration and response. The unit is separate and independent from ABC program areas and is responsible for investigating complaints alleging a broadcast or publication was in contravention of the ABC’s editorial standards. In light of your concerns, we have reviewed the broadcast and assessed it against the ABC’s editorial requirements for accuracy and impartiality, as outlined in sections 2 and 4 of the ABC’s Editorial Policies: http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/edpols.htm. In the interests of procedural fairness, we have also sought and considered material from ABC News.

Four Corners advises that the material that the program drew upon was based on sworn evidence before the Melbourne Magistrates Court where Mao Ru Zhang has been arrested and charged with placing two women in debt bondage and sexual servitude. In Taiwan, the program talked to a Ministry of Justice prosecutor who had gathered evidence based on intercepted phone calls and documented examples of illegal smuggling of Chinese women between Taiwan and Australia. Four Corners stands by the accuracy of its program and that the trafficking cases described in the program, were actual cases of trafficking.

If you have any evidence of corrupt police or immigration officials hassling sex workers, the program would be very happy to receive this information and investigate it further.

On review the program did not “support for criminalisation of sex work and the expansion of police powers”. It investigated examples of where women were being exploited against their will and raised legitimate questions as to how and why such a situation exists in Australia today, especially when the sex industry has been widely decriminalised and regulated for people’s safety and enjoyment? There is nothing in the program to suggest that the program makers are anti-sex workers.

Four Corners advises that it researched this story extensively and spoke to many organisations, academics, investigators, politicians, brothel owners and sex workers, including the Scarlet Alliance. Links to various organisations are found on the program’s website. http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2011/10/06/3333668.htm

Accordingly, while noting your concerns, Audience and Consumer Affairs are satisfied the broadcast was in keeping with the ABC’s editorial standards for accuracy and impartiality. Nonetheless, please be assured that your comments have been noted and conveyed to ABC News management and the producers of the program.

Thank you for taking the time to write; your feedback is appreciated.

For your reference, the ABC Editorial Policies are available online at http://www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/codeofpractice2011.pdf

Should you be dissatisfied with this response to your complaint, you may be able to pursue your complaint with the Australian Communications and Media Authority, http://www.acma.gov.au .

Yours sincerely
Mark Maley
Audience & Consumer Affairs

NAUWU was dissatisfied with this response from The ABC so we sent the following reply:

From: Nothing Without <nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: Trafficking for Sex Work in Australia
To: ABC Corporate_Affairs11 <CORPORATE_AFFAIRS11.ABC@abc.net.au>

We do have evidence of police corruption and if your show had done its research without first taking an anti-sex work slant, you too would have already reported on it. This case has been reported on for over 6 months:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/more-news/council-worker-jailed-for-brothel-bribes/story-fn7x8me2-1226196513238

Yarra Council, the very council that your 4 Corners ‘talent’ Kathleen Maltzan served upon, implemented am anti-trafficking approach actually has materially that promoted corruption, and has now resulted in the JAILING of an operator in their area (see above link). That 4 Corners uncritically promoted the voice of this anti-sex work campaigner, and overlooked the corruption charges IN THE VERY POLICIES SHE IMPLIMENTED AS A COUNCILLOR is illustrative of the lazy jounalism that characterised that episode of 4 Corners.

The interviews you did show cased Kathleen Maltzhan as if she both had knowledge and advice about trafficking policy. In actual fact HER VERY COUNCIL has been instrumental in the very corruption that has arisen from ANTI TRAFFICKING POLICIES, the policies your show did nothing to critically expose.

There have been closures of brothels EVEN THIS WEEK still as fall out resulting from the false reporting of 4 Corners. Sex workers in Melbourne, Surry Hills, Sydney, Angel Town and Enmore Road Newtown have all faced violent immigration raids and closures of their workplaces on the basis of harsh anti-immigration policing.

Will 4 Corners take responsibility for the harsh law and order response that they priviledged, leading to more sex worker harrasment and no consideration of expanding migrant sex workers rights?

In both the show and your response to our complaint you are continueing to illustrate a complete lack of understanding of sex worker approaches to trafficking prevention. People who have experienced sex trafficking are not for media to pathologise or sensationalise. Your show has had a direct negative impact on migrant sex workers rights, and have contributed to harsh negative law and order approaches that have materially reduced sex workers access to justice or anti-trafficking preventions since you aired the show.

We are incredibly dissapointed at your response. Our committee will consider your response and acknowledge the time period that passed since we sent you our complaint; this may have an impact on whether the Press Council will accept us to submit this to arbitartion or not.

We are dissapointed and feel that this discussion is not over; we don’t feel like 4 Corners has effectively addressed our complaint, and your refusal of all of our suggestions is unacceptable.

The anti-sex work nature of your show was palpable, the reporting was biased, and NAUWU is totally not happy with your response.

Please explain how your show chose an anti-trafficking spokesperson without critically investigating her own history and involvement with failed harsh criminal approaches to trafficking

NAUWU
nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com
http://www.nothing-about-us-without-us.com

What now?
NAUWU and the sex working community is furious with the ABC’s response. Our next step is to make an appeal to the Press Council, however we have to ask them to waive the 30 day limitation on the complaint because the ABC took longer than usual to respond to NAUWU’s complaint.

The Press Council arbitration means signing a document to agree not to sue the ABC in other ways in the future. NAUWU believes this program was incredibly damaging and so has no problem signing such a document to take the complaint to the next level and believe The ABC and the Four Corners program needs to be judged by a third party,

Even if The Press Council finds in favour or 4 Corners, the fact that we have pursued the complaint is meaningful. At the end of the year the Press Council writes a report about who was complained about and why, so even if our complaint is turned down or isn’t successful it will be worthwhile having made the complaint.

We will keep you informed.

If you have any comments you can leave them in the comments section on this page, or please feel free to contact at us nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com

Note: NAUWU makes every effort to ensure the quality of the information available on this website. Before relying on the information on this site, however, users should carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. NAUWU cannot guarantee and assumes no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, currency or completeness of the information.

Disclaimer: Images used on this site have been used with the permission of all parties pictured. If you happen to find an image of yourself and do not wish for it to appear on http://www.nothing-about-us-without-us.com please let the webperson of this site know by contacting nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com .

Contributions on http://www.nothing-about-us-without-us.com have been made by NSW Sex Workers and other concerned parties of NSW Sex Industry; site design and maintenance by nothingaboutuswithoutus@gmail.com ; Copyright Nothing About Us Without Us 2009 – 2020

Australia should lead a global HIV prevention revolution The Drum 10.10.11

Australian Media, Media No Responses » Tagged with: Australian Media, HIV/AIDS, Media

Nov 232011

Red riibbon

Australia should lead a global HIV prevention revolution

The Drum
10th October 2011
10 Comments

Bill Whittaker

The global fight against AIDS is at a crossroads. On the one hand we have exciting new scientific evidence which could dramatically reverse the pace of the HIV epidemic and prevent millions of new infections, sickness and deaths.

On the other hand, there is weariness and complacency after 30 years of the epidemic as well as a global financial crisis putting tremendous pressure on national budgets around the world and threatening funding essential to reverse the relentless spread of HIV.

Mind-numbing statistics speak for themselves about the scale of the HIV epidemic and the work to be done: 30 million lives lost; another 33 million people living with HIV; and 7000 new infections occurring every day, mostly among young people.

New HIV treatments are having a tremendous impact in reducing illness and AIDS-related deaths, but the sustainability of providing HIV treatment – especially in low to middle-income countries – is threatened by the reality that for every one person put on HIV treatment, another two people become infected.

Recently, the United Nations agreed to a bold new Declaration to fight AIDS which Australia played a leading role in getting all UN Member States to endorse. A centrepiece of the UN Declaration are bold new HIV prevention targets for the global community to reach by 2015.

These global targets include reducing sexual transmission of HIV by 50 per cent; reducing HIV transmissions through injecting drug use by 50 per cent; and eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmissions – all by 2015.

So how would these targets be achieved under the UN Declaration? Firstly, by dramatically scaling up prevention programs; by freeing up access to HIV testing; by increasing HIV education alongside wide availability of condoms and sterile injecting equipment; by promoting male circumcision in certain contexts; and by fully exploiting the potential of new technologies for communication and connecting people – such as social media, mobile phones and the internet.

The UN Declaration also calls for global action to ensure prevention programs properly focus on the three populations which are universally at higher risk to HIV, specifically men who have sex with men, sex workers and their clients and people who inject drugs.

Finally, the Declaration calls for new scientific evidence about the additional prevention benefits that HIV treatment can deliver to be capitalised on. So just as HIV treatment was revolutionised 15 years ago by combining different drugs – termed “combination treatment” – the Declaration heralds an era of “combination prevention”, where proven prevention programs and communication innovation are combined with wide availability of HIV treatment to help drive down rates of new HIV infections.

So what should this mean for Australia? Our rate of new HIV infections is running at around 1,000 new infections per year, mostly among gay men. But should we be satisfied with this level of new infections – the personal and community impact of this – and the something like $1 billion plus price-tag that comes with each 1,000 new infections? Of course not.

Australia’s current National HIV strategy and most state and territory strategies continue a lamentable drift away from setting bold, time-bound HIV prevention targets so essential to generate momentum and monitor progress.

Now is the opportunity for us to embrace “combination prevention”, re-double our efforts and set bold HIV prevention targets aligned with the 2011 UN Declaration to really drive down Australia’s HIV infection rates. These targets should include:

Reducing sexual transmission of HIV among men who have sex with men by 80 per cent by 2015.
Eliminating HIV transmission from injecting drug use by 2015.
Eliminating HIV transmission among sex workers and clients by 2015.

These prevention targets should be complemented by a treatment target of having 90 per cent of people with HIV in Australia on HIV antiviral treatment by 2013.

These are the kind of bold actions that the 2011 UN Declaration calls for and that all countries, including Australia, have pledged to implement.

Australia has shown great leadership and innovation in HIV prevention. One of the best things Australia can do to support a global HIV prevention revolution is to lead by example and champion what we are doing. We must not miss this opportunity to re-vitalise our HIV prevention strategies and to help lead global efforts to stop the spread of HIV and its devastating impact on so millions of people around the world.

Bill Whittaker is one of the architects of Australia’s response to AIDS and has worked in HIV policy and strategy for more than 25 years.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3416154.html

The star of Scarlet Road unveils some truths about getting paid for No Magazine Nov 2011

Australian Media, Media, NAUWU and our Peers, NSW Media No Responses » Tagged with: Australian Media, disability, Media, NAUWU Peers, Positive Media, Rachel Wotton, Touching Base

Nov 232011

NO Magazine_Nov 2011_Scarlet Road

Article from No Magazine.
NO MAGAZINE
http://www.nomagazine.co.nz/

SCARLET ROAD on SBS TV 10pm Friday 2nd December 2011

Australian Media, Media, NAUWU, NAUWU and our Peers, NSW Media No Responses » Tagged with: Australian Media, disability, Media, NAUWU Peers, NSW, Positive Media, Rachel Wotton, Scarlet Road, Touching Base

Nov 232011

SCARLET ROAD is screening on SBS TV 10pm Friday 2nd December 2011

Scarlet Road follows the extraordinary work of Australian sex worker, Rachel Wotton. Impassioned about freedom of sexual expression and the rights of sex workers, she specializes in a long over-looked clientele – people with disability.

NOMINATED FOR EXCELLENCE IN DOCUMENTARY

Scarlet Road is a finalist in the 2011 Walkley Documentary Award
(awards will be announced 27th November)

Director/Co-producer – Catherine Scott Producer – Pat Fiske Editor – Andrea Lang ASE

“An astonishing and illuminating insight into a part of society that is often hidden. Through the character of Rachel we are taken on a journey about sexuality and disability that is surprising, funny, moving, informative and confronting. The filmmaker takes us into areas of human intimacy with fearlessness, compassion and sensitivity.” – from the Walkley Award judge’s comments – http://www.walkleys.com/news/3574/

To see trailer go to: http://www.scarletroad.com.au/trailer/

Please send this on to all your friends, family and work colleagues!

Top 10 movie prostitutes The Sydney Morning Herald 22.11.11

Australian Media, Media 1 Response » Tagged with: Australian Media, Media

Nov 232011

Top 10 movie prostitutes

November 22, 2011
Sydney Morning Herald

In X, the latest swan dive into Australia’s seedy underworld by low-budget Sydney filmmaker Jon Hewitt, two hookers share a night of violence and running; for one girl it’s her last night on the job; for the other it’s her first.

Filmmakers have long been fascinated by the purveyors of the world’s oldest profession, sometimes for prurient reasons, often in the search for deeper truths about sex, money, men, redemption and addiction. In many cases all five issues can be covered in the one hooker-trick transaction.

Click through the image gallery above to view CineTopia’s pick of the 10 best movie hookers. Is it definitive? You bet it’s not.

Please enjoy.

Questions

What is wrong with Schembri? Where’s Klute? Where’s Angel? Why isn’t Dolly in there? What great movie hookers should be on this list?

Your valued thoughts are hereby sought.

No Sunday trade but Perth now has sex in the suburbs WAToday 21.11.11

Australian Media, Media No Responses » Tagged with: Australian Media, Media, Perth, Western Australia

Nov 212011

No Sunday trade but Perth now has sex in the suburbs

Jenna Clarke
WAToday
November 21, 2011

Brigitta is among mainstream stores at the Westfield Whitford City shopping centre. Photo: Jenna Clarke

Forget Sex and The City, Malcolm and Bree Day are now taking sex to the suburbs.

In what has taken 12 years to orchestrate, the couple who changed the face of the local retail sex industry by establishing and evolving the Adultshop.com brand, have launched an upmarket adult store inside a shopping centre.

The high-end pleasure palace, called Brigitta, stocks “provocative lingerie, intimate massagers and accessories for the bedroom and beyond” next door to a womenswear store and jeweller at Westfield’s Whitford City shopping complex in Perth’s northern suburbs.

Bree and Malcolm Day inside their naughty new store, Brigitta. Photo: Jenna Clarke

Among the plush decor and velvet clad walls, an 18-carat, solid gold Swedish designed “toy” – with a $15,000 pricetag – was flown in from Sydney especially to mark the opening night and took pride of place inside the luxurious den.

This push towards sensual suburban luxury and step away from blackened windows and x-rated magazines is due to female figures according to Mr Day, who says women now make up about 48 per cent of the Adultshop.com‘s customer base.

However this is something the 46-year-old civil engineer-turned-erotica-entrepreneur has known for over a decade.

In the late ’90s Mr Day recognised there was an opportunity to sell sex toys in major shopping centres by “creating stores that were all about sensuality and romance and not about sex,” he told WAtoday.com.au.

In December 1999, the idea of a mainstream adult store Primadonna was pitched, along with swatches of purple velvet wallpaper, to the major shopping centres in Perth.

“I’ve never had premature problems but Primadonna was premature for the market back then,” Mr Day said.

“Consumer attitudes to adult products and pleasure toys weren’t there so whether it’s Sex and The City or the internet, I’m not sure what’s changed but things have definitely changed.”

Fast forward 11 years and Mr Day was approached by Westfield leasing agents who approved his sexy idea to set up shop in the centre of a popular, high-traffic shopping mall.

“We wanted to design a space which stocks affordable lingerie which isn’t as practical or girly as BrasNThings and not the sort of lingerie that you would buy in David Jones or Myer but also a small range of upmarket pleasure toys,” he said.

One of the first customers to venture into the store, which resembles a Parisian boudoir, was an elderly woman with a Zimmer frame.

Wheels are already in motion for the second Brigitta store and considering first-day sales doubled on day two, a May 2012 opening may not be only unambitious but prove the theory that sex does indeed sell.

“Ideally we’d like to set up four or five stores in Perth and if things go well we’d like to venture over east and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be successful,” Mr Day said.

While his company, Delecta, is still battling bureaucracy in the eastern states following his proposal to build the country’s biggest brothel, ironically previously touted as “the Westfield of brothels“, Mr Day and his wife and business partner Bree are optimistic about the progression of the sex industry in Australia.

The stigma of ‘sexual assistance’ WA Today 13.11.11

International Media, Media No Responses » Tagged with: disability, international media, Media

Nov 172011

The stigma of ‘sexual assistance’

November 13, 2011
WA Today

Tenderness … sexual assistants help the disabled lead a normal life. Photo: Cathryn Tremain

Helping those who can’t help themselves – sexually – comes at a price.

For several years now, Jacques Arnould has been giving people with a disability in Switzerland the right to a little tenderness and sexual attention.

But for many, his work as a professional “sexual assistant” treads a thin line between a caring profession and prostitution.

Aged 50 and married with three children, Jacques is one of the rare Swiss assistants to openly speak out about the services he provides. Even in Switzerland, where the job of sexual assistant has had a proper legal status for more than eight years, the subject remains taboo.

A qualified physiotherapist, with a speciality in urinary and gynaecological issues, Jacques says there is “still a lot of educating to do on this subject” of sexual assistance for the handicapped, which is often misunderstood.

“Disabled people are still people: they have fantasies, expectations, desires and frustrations,” he said.

The job of the sexual assistant is to respond to these needs and give people who might otherwise have little chance of being sexually active due to their handicap the opportunity to feel like a normal human being.

Some sexual assistants show a disabled client how to touch and be touched, others bring the person to orgasm. There is usually a lengthy assessment of what a person’s needs are and what he can actually physically achieve with his disability before anything physical takes place.

Across town, far away from Zurich’s red light districts, Michelle Gut, an elegant masseuse with long blonde hair, greets clients – many of whom are mentally or physically disabled – at her chic and comfortable Andana massage parlour. A masseuse since the 1990s, Michelle went on to qualify for legal status as a sexual assistant to give disabled clients “the sexual tenderness they are missing”.

“It is not easy to have a normal private life when you are handicapped,” she said. “Some people just use pornography, others don’t know anything about sexuality at all as they have no experience of it.”

Only around a dozen people in Switzerland are trained to give this experience. The training is handled by specialist organisations after a rigorous selection process. One of the requirements stipulates that working as an assistant must not be someone’s main job, but rather a secondary line of work.

“It is not a profession in itself, you even have to prove that you have a main profession,” explained Catherine Agthe Diserens, a sex educator who trains sexual assistants. She is also president of the Swiss Sexuality and Handicap charity SEHP, which encourages people with disabilities to be sexually active.

Sexual assistants can also be found in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark but in other countries, such as France, the job does not yet have a proper legal status. French disabled rights groups have repeatedly raised the issue in the last year, urging official recognition for sex assistants and, significantly, state funding for their services.

In Switzerland, a sexual assistant has a status similar to that of a prostitute, rather than a carer, since services are paid for and the cost is met entirely by the client.

Michelle charges 162 euro ($A216) an hour for the disabled and 220 euro ($A294) for able-bodied clients, and offers services ranging from classic massage to “erogenous zone massage”, which equates to masturbation, she said.

Penetration is not allowed though, she added adamantly. “I have some good contacts who are prostitutes and I know some sexual assistants who will go further so if a client wants more, I put them in touch.”

Although prostitutes do receive disabled clients, sexual assistants are better viewed by “parents and heads of institutions”, according to Diserens at the charity SEHP.

The reason, she said, is that handicapped clients may need “more time and contact” than they get with prostitutes who can be rather “troubled” by certain disabilities.

Using a recognised sexual assistant removes the awkwardness of the situation for both parties, and often for the family too, noted Arnould.

“Is it acceptable that the mother of a young man with Downs syndrome has to help him masturbate every week?” he asked.

Nevertheless the role continues to be stigmatised as Jacques knows all too well.

“There are some people who disapprove of my work as a sexual assistant and refuse to be treated by me. But others think that the work is good.”

“People who stigmatise us should be honest enough to go and find out more about sexual assistance and have some empathy,” he said.

AFP

Casino in prostitution investigation WA Today 13.11.11

Australian Media, Media, NSW Media 1 Response » Tagged with: Australian Laws, Australian Media, Legal, Media, NSW

Nov 172011

Casino in prostitution investigation

Exclusive | Heath Aston
November 13, 2011
WA Today

Under review … the refurbished Star reopened in October. Photo: Quentin Jones

THE illegal shuttling of prostitutes to The Star casino complex by known ”pimps” is under investigation by a government review into the licence of the revamped casino.

The Star insisted yesterday it took a ”zero-tolerance approach to prostitution”. But reports compiled by its own staff, and obtained by The Sun-Herald, show suspected prostitutes and their handlers routinely ply their trade unchallenged inside the complex, including in its hotel. One ”pimp” is identified arriving in a car with the same number plates on four occasions over three months last year. In one case, he is described as dropping off one prostitute as he collected another on her way out.

The casino review, headed by the barrister Gail Furness, SC, is understood to be concerned by the reports. The Gaming Minister, George Souris, told The Sun-Herald he had called on the independent Casino, Liquor and Gaming Control Authority to ”investigate the allegations” thoroughly.

The Star was relaunched in October as a premier food and entertainment precinct following an $870 million redevelopment.

The authority is pushing for a 150-metre exclusion zone for brothels around the casino. While prostitution is legal, it is illegal under the Summary Offences Act to live on the earnings of a prostitute as a pimp.

The Casino Control Act also obliges the casino to ensure an environment ”free from criminal influence or exploitation”.

The Star says it ”actively discourages” prostitution but ”it is extremely difficult to prove”.

The casino’s own surveillance reports suggest little is done to prevent ”regular” prostitutes being brought in for patrons on demand.

”An Asian female wearing jeans was dropped off by a white Hyundai,” an incident report begins, ”It was also noticed that this car which is driven by an Asian male [pimp] brought in and picked [up] girls almost simultaneously.”

On the same night – September 2 last year – another patron was suspected of having prostitutes sent to his room on the 11th floor. ”During a period of over an hour there were four girls who visited the room,” the report notes.

An log from three weeks earlier describes a complaint by a male patron who was approached in the casino’s sports theatre by a female who offered ”sexual relations”. A subsequent review of CCTV footage found after being rebuffed the woman entered the main casino floor and approached another man: ”The Asian female walks in front of the main cashier, stops for a moment and befriends another Caucasian male wearing a cream top and brown pants … There appears to be some affection shown between each other.”

All incident reports must include whether staff contacted police or the casino authority. In these cases, neither were passed on despite strict laws forbidding prostitutes working the gaming floor.

None of the other reports indicated that police and the authority were notified.

The vast majority of the 13 reports obtained by The Sun-Herald relate to prostitutes meeting clients in the casino’s hotel foyer or going straight to hotel rooms. Some describe money openly changing hands but none detail any prostitutes or pimps being warned off the premises.

A spokesman for The Star, Brad Schmitt, said the casino regarded prostitution as an ”undesirable activity” but added: ”It is something we actively try to discourage, however it is extremely difficult to prove.”

He said: ”The Star has a zero tolerance approach to prostitution within the casino boundary. We also don’t believe there is any hotel that does more to detect and report this activity. The Star regularly discusses the issue of prostitution within the hotel with both police and the regulator, however neither has raised any concerns.”

Incident reports were not a regulatory requirement but used as a ”risk management tool to monitor undesirable and illegal activity”.

According to sources, Ms Furness asked to see the incident reports and is concerned at the grey area that exists between strict regulations that apply only to the gaming floors but not the entire casino premises. A previous casino review conducted by Peter McClellan QC in 2000 states that ”prostitution is an offence if it takes place on the casino premises”.

The casino review is due to be handed to the state government by December 15. An authority spokesman said: ”The investigation will determine if The Star is suitable to continue to operate the casino and if it is in the public interest for the casino licence to remain in force.

”The investigation is examining any presence of illegal and undesirable activities and people in the casino and determining if the management and operation of the casino remains free from criminal influence or exploitation.

”The last two major investigations into the casino operator and licence found no evidence of the organised solicitation of prostitutes in the private gaming rooms or on the main gaming floor.”

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