WA prostitution control bill dumped

BY CHANTAL CARUSO

The Western Australian Labor government has conceded that its contentious Prostitution Control Bill will not be passed by the upper house, and has therefore decided to shelve the bill.

Through the bill, police minister Michelle Roberts had planned to legalise brothels and introduce a further 35 jailable offences and 42 finable charges for sometimes minor infringements for sex industry workers. The bill would have set up a Prostitution Control Board coupled with expanded police powers and draconian health provisions.

The abandonment of the bill has come as a great relief to sex workers, sex worker advocates (who have recently been demonised in media) and some 40 health and community organisations which opposed the bill.

However, a great blow to street-based sex workers has been dealt with the recent passing of the Prostitution Amendment Bill 2003. The new law repeals the provision for the automatic expiry and review of the Prostitution Act 2000, under which street-based sex work is illegal and harshly penalised, which was due on July 29.

The act forced street-based sex workers underground and support agencies have consistently reported increased occupational risks (such as violence and sexual assault) for such workers.

When it was out of office, the ALP opposed the act. However, after Labor won government in 2001, it did not conduct an immediate review of the act. Instead, it introduced legislation to extend the act's two-year sunset clause to three years, and then most recently, introduced a bill which revokes the sunset clause altogether. In other words, the ALP is now saying that legislation outlawing street-based sex work will remain in force indefinitely.

Researchers in the Sex Worker Action Group have found that under the current law on prostitution:

 local residents are still being harassed by kerb crawlers and are also concerned by the way the street-based sex industry has been driven underground;

 assaults against street-based sex workers while they are soliciting customers are going unreported because sex workers fear reporting such assaults to the police will result in their being prosecuted for breaking the law;

 police interaction with sex industry workers, outreach workers, and local residents whom police suspect to be working as sex workers, has involved verbal abuse and physical intimidation; and

 there is a pronounced gender bias in the police response where a significantly disproportionate number of charges have been laid against street-based female sex workers compared to male clients.

[Chantal Caruso is a member of the Sex Worker Action Group.]

From GLW issue 545