SEEKING LEGITIMACY: Sex workers in Queensland are seeking respectability, if submissions to several regulators are any indication.
Source: The Advertiser
HAS prostitution become a respectable trade in Queensland? And is the State Government moving to completely deregulate and decriminalise the sex industry?
You might think so if you read recent reports from regulators such as the Crime and Misconduct Commission and the Prostitution Licensing Commission.
Hookers, it seems, are the new social workers, and they are demanding respect.
In a report on the industry, the CMC suggests Queensland set up yet another bureaucracy – a “ministerial advisory committee” to monitor prostitution.
The CMC wants prostitutes and brothel keepers to sit on the committee like directors of a board to advise the Government on sex trade matters. It is almost as if they are promoting prostitution as a career option.
Respect Inc, a prostitutes’ collective, certainly does. In a weighty submission to the CMC, it demands that sex work “be recognised as a legitimate occupation”.
The group wants all prostitution offences removed from the criminal code. It wants the Government to scrap the mandatory health testing of prostitutes and calls for the legalisation of escort agencies and smaller collective brothels. Respect Inc proudly proclaims it is funded by the Government.
Neil Castles, a deputy director-general of Queensland Health, confirms Respect Inc was given $479,383 this year for sexual health education programs and for “advocacy for sex workers in Queensland”.
This will sit uncomfortably with those in the community – including senior police and members of Cabinet – who regard prostitution as the ultimate exploitation of women, a form of slavery inherently linked to violence, drugs, people trafficking and the destruction of families. Some nations are thinking of scrapping liberal prostitution laws and moving towards the abolition of prostitution to fight the human trade of women and children for sex.
The US Department of State estimates that 800,000 people are trafficked across borders globally each year, 80 per cent of them women and children. The department says these are conservative figures and exclude millions of victims trafficked within national borders. The Australian Crime Commission says cases of trafficking for sexual exploitation in this country have largely involved small crime groups rather than large organised crime gangs.
The CMC says prostitution will never be eliminated and found no evidence of organised crime like that uncovered by The Courier-Mail which led to the Fitzgerald inquiry. However there has been an Asianisation of brothels in Queensland, with many prostitutes unable to speak English.
The CMC doesn’t pretend to have any answers to the social evils accompanying prostitution. It doesn’t even know how many prostitutes there are in Queensland.
In a recent report to Parliament it admitted the illegal sex industry was bigger than the legal one. It’s an astonishing admission suggesting reforms have been a failure.
It said: “We note that the regulated licensed brothel sector remains relatively small. There is no consensus on the size and nature of the illegal industry except to say that it is likely to be larger than the legal prostitution industry.”
There are 25 legal brothels in Queensland with names like Temple of Pleasures (at Rocklea), Scarlet Harem (Kunda Park, Sunshine Coast) and Purely Blue (Bowen Hills).
The illegal sex trade might be sending them broke. Four have closed since May 2010 according to Queensland’s Prostitution Licensing Authority. In Victoria there is one brothel for every 58,819 citizens. In Queensland it’s one for every 195,609 people.
Based on the number of licensed brothels per capita in Victoria, there would be 77 brothels in Queensland. The difference is that brothels in Victoria are permitted to operate outcall services.
Brothel keepers here want the law changed so they, too, can offer callgirls for sex. The authority has no objections.
It said: “The Prostitution Licensing Authority is confident that legalising outcalls would result in an expansion of the state’s licensed sector at the expense of illegal operators.”
It says the current law restricts licensed brothels to as little as 25 per cent of the market.
There is some good news: a Queensland Health program to help prostitutes exit the sex industry has helped 139 people find alternative employment.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/ipad/dark-underbelly-to-sex-industry-spin/story-fn6ck620-1226100049012
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