Brothels Brace for Shake Up

BY RYAN QUINN

The Scarlet Alliance, an association for Australian sex workers, fear that small brothels could by forced out of the market by NSW Parliament.

The alliance said the current NSW parliamentary inquiry into the licensing of the state’s brothel industry could create expensive licenses.

Scarlet Alliance President Elena Jeffreys said a licensing model in the sex industry would be expensive, creating barriers to comply with the law and would not support the autonomy of workers.

“Involving police in the lives of sex workers impacts the little fish much more than the sharks. Council proposals would see big brothels allowed, as long as they paid a hefty fee for the privilege,” she said.

The inquiry is exploring the licensing of NSW brothels, debating items such as closing and penalising illegal ones, brothel locations, the nature of the industry, current regulation, and the protection of sex workers.

It follows NSW Premier Mike Baird’s election promise to look into state laws on brothels.

The Inquiry Chairperson Alister Henskens said the need for an inquest arose through council inadequacies.

“Hornsby council failed in its bid to close down a massage parlour in Hornsby that was engaging in the provision of sexual services without appropriate permission,” he said.

The alliance blame councils for the inquiry, citing failures in zoning and amenity impact regulation in their areas.

A statement from Scarlet Alliance said councils had been refusing brothel DAs in fear of losing votes.

“This failure to effectively do their role in implementing decriminalisation has led to multiple problems that could be addressed if councils were to follow the intention of the legislation and not discriminate against the sex industry,” the statement read.

Decriminalisation of sex work in NSW has seen lower rates of STIs and HIV, Ms Jeffreys said, quoting a 2011 HIV Report by the Department of Health and Ageing.

“It’s been over two decades since criminal charges for sex work were taken off the books in New South Wales, and a wonderful two decades it has been,” Ms Jeffreys said.

It was found that the decriminalisation of sex work will reduce HIV by 46% over the next decade, according to The Lancet Journals’ 2014 look at HIV and Sex Workers.

The statement from Scarlet Alliance said the decriminalisation led to the development of the Health and Safety Guidelines for Brothels.

Scarlet Alliance aims to achieve equality, social, legal, political, cultural and economic justice for past and present workers in the sex industry.

Submissions to the inquiry closed last week, with many concerns raised by the Alliance still to be answered.

A final report from the submissions and decisions are due to be released on November 12.