BY SEAN WALSH
MELBOURNE — The Port Phillip Action Group got more than they bargained for on February 25, when its "Resident Street Walk Against Street Prostitution and Drugs" through the streets of seaside St Kilda was met with 50 counter-protesters opposing its reactionary attitude to street sex workers.
Announcing themselves as the "new class" of St Kilda, the Port Phillip Action Group called for prostitutes to be pushed into industrial areas. But counter-demonstrators pointed out that street sex workers have been part of the St Kilda community for 80 years and pushing them into underpopulated industrial areas would be detrimental to their health and safety.
The counter-rally, called by QUEER, Queers United to Eradicate Economic Rationalism, attracted both activists and concerned St Kilda residents. Calling for "Solutions, not persecution" for sex workers, the protesters followed the PPAG to St Kilda Town Hall where they held a rally of their own. Their demands centred on the decriminalisation of sex work and the right for sex workers to work free from police harasment.
Kathy Wilson, the chief executive officer of the Inner South Community Health Service, explained to the anti-PPAG demonstrators the importance of making "street sex workers feel safe enough to engage with health and community workers. It's only when people feel they belong that they make use of health, social and community services. This is the best, most effective and outstanding form of health promotion."
Adrian Hartwhich, from Resourcing Health and Education in the Sex Industry, said that the issue of sex work is multi-faceted and that sex workers have been completely ignored in negotiations about resident concerns. The PPAG has made no attempt to approach sex workers, he said.
Sex workers' amenities is one major issue. Hartwhich said governments and councils should be looking at such models as the Netherlands' "red zones" and at safe houses, which offer a less dangerous working environment to workers.
Recent studies conducted in St Kilda have shown that many workers come from some of the most disadvantaged backgrounds.
While a high percentage may be regular drug users, the use of sex workers as scapegoats for the drug problem must be challenged, speakers at the rally argued. The issue of drug use in St Kilda is separate from that of prostitution and must be addressed in a way that minimises harm both for users and residents.
It remains to be seen whether any such enlightened policies will be implemented. However, the government seems far from concerned about the working conditions of sex workers, and looks set to maintain its policy of persecution, in spite of the corruption that criminalisation of prostitution breeds.
In coming weeks, residents and government representatives will hold round-table meetings. But without the input of sex workers and without commitment to some fundamental demands that benefit both sex workers and residents, the meetings are likely to become little more than talkfests.