Ema C, Hobart
Working as a prostitute is not illegal in Tasmania, but it is illegal to "live off the earnings of a prostitute". The Tasmanian Sex Industry Regulation Bill, introduced into Tasmanian parliament on June 7, would have allowed for legal brothels and for sex-workers to work in pairs. However, the bill has now been adjourned in the upper house and looks unlikely to pass.
Spokesperson for sex-worker group Prostitutes Tasmania, Rachel, told Green Left Weekly that her organisation was "quite pleased with the bill" and "would have liked to have seen it passed", with some amendments.
Increased police powers could, however, lead to violations of sex worker's privacy and civil rights. Under the proposed legislation, individual sex workers would be required to register and lists could be viewed by police or other "authorised persons". Police would be allowed to enter the workplace of a sex-worker, including a private home, without a warrant if they are suspected of having a child on the premises. Sex workers may also be arrested without warrant if there is a belief that they are "likely" to commit this offence.
Janelle Fawkes, president of Scarlet Alliance (a national umbrella-group for sex-worker projects) told Green Left Weekly that "Scarlet Alliance would not support registration of individual sex workers in any form. We believe that it's discriminatory and in most cases registration is used for increased surveillance ... This model of registration can be more likened to a paedophile list and it sends a strong message to the community that sex workers are to be treated differently."
The Scarlet Alliance advocates the decriminalisation of the sex industry and that it be treated like any other industry. Fawkes argued that the bill "cannot meet its objectives of promoting occupational health and safety of sex workers because it's built on a discriminatory framework". However, Fawkes supports the aspect of the bill that enables "two sex workers to work collectively sharing costs and providing each other with peer support".
In opposition to the bill, the Coalition Against Legalised Brothels (whose spokesperson, Pat Gartlan, is also president of the Tasmanian Catholic Women's League) is promoting the Swedish legislative model, which criminalises clients and agents but not (in theory) sex workers. According to Rachel, this model would "drive workers further away from health and other resources ... Those upper house members who are opposing the bill should be disgusted and ashamed with themselves ... These MLCs need to start listening to what Tasmanian workers say."
From Green Left Weekly, July 6, 2005.
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