The Prostitution Licensing Authority (PLA) asked for the legal advice of McInnes Wilson Lawyers on the legality of sole operators providing a sex service from hotel rooms in QLD. QLD does have anti-discrimination laws pertaining to sex work and this is reflected in the opinion of McInnes Wilson Lawyers provided in the following document:
http://www.pla.qld.gov.au/Resources/PLA/theLaw/Legal%20Opinion%20re%20motel%20rooms%20-%20for%20web.pdf
Sex workers who tour or work in hotel/motel rooms anywhere in Queensland, will often print out and carry this document in case they are confronted by hotel/motel staff and threatened with eviction for being sex workers. This document will then be shown to management/staff in the hotel while they are advised by workers of their legal rights and the consequences that may happen if sex workers are discriminated against and thrown out of the hotel or made to feel uncomfortable in any way.
We are placing this document on the site because of ongoing issues workers are having and because of the following article published recently in The Morning Bulletin:
Excerpt from The Morning Bulletin Wednesday June 29, 2011
ANTI DISCRIMINATION Commission Queensland is encouraging sex workers who feel they have been discriminated against by motel operators to come forward and lay a complaint.
The call follows a report in The Bulletin last month where an Emerald woman was questioned on her occupation and wrongly labeled a prostitute when she went to book a room at the Top 1 Motel on Gladstone Road.
The woman who was employed as a nurse refused to stay and left the motel in disgust.
ADCQ Regional Manager Ben Cooke said if a person was suspected or presumed of being a sole sex worker it was unlawful to ask them their occupation. It is also unlawful for lawful sex workers to be refused motel or other accommodation on the basis of their work.
Mr Cooke said any person who was asked this information could complain to the ADCQ by phoning 1300 130 670.
Mr Cooke said he could not confirm whether a complaint had been made by the Emerald woman.
http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2011/06/21/hooker-slur-outrages-visiting-mum-clash/
If you experience discrimination including being denied access to a hotel room, being thrown out of a hotel, are harassed, threatened or demeaned by hotel/motel staff, there is no need for you to let it go. They are breaching anti-discrimination laws by doing so and sex workers have taken offending hotels to the Anti-Discrimination Board and won their cases.
For more information, if you have any questions, if you wish to take action or just need to have a chat and a debrief, you can contact Respect Inc. Respect Inc is Queensland’s sex worker organisation which is staffed by peers. The PLA can also be a good contact although please remember it is one of the regulating bodies for QLD sex industry and they are definitely NOT peers.
Respect Inc
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http://www.respectqld.org.au
Townsville office landline 07 47244853
Brisbane office landline 07 38351111
Cairns office landline 07 40515009
PO Box 2470 New Farm Qld 4005 or
PO Box 2410 Townsville Qld 4810
PLA
http://www.pla.qld.gov.au/
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