Page 1559 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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Finally I would like to thank the members of the community whom the Canberra Times recognised in an editorial on 3 February, part of which I included in my preface. The editorial said:
It is, perhaps, a measure of the maturity of the Canberra Community that public debate surrounding this inquiry has been conducted in such sensible and low key language.
We do not expect everybody to agree with us, but we have had a very positive, logical and rational debate.
I turn now to some of the concepts, Mr Speaker. One of the things that have concerned me in my dealings with prostitution and other areas is the concept of marginalisation of groups. When this was being discussed in the committee hearings with, I believe, Bishop Power of the Catholic Church, he presented prostitution as dehumanising. Perhaps there is some reality in that; perhaps there is some truth in it. But I think that even more dehumanising than prostitution itself is society's view of what goes on as far as prostitution is concerned and the way that society has been treating women in particular, because the vast majority of prostitution - not all of it - concerns women.
Mr Speaker, in the ACT, I think prostitution is the last private sexual act between two consenting adults to which legislation applies. That being the case, it is important for us to realise that the position of the law in relation to a private sexual act between two consenting adults is worth tackling. The other issue, and probably in many ways the most important issue, is that of public health. The public health issue really is one that we, as a committee, weighed up against, amongst other things, the morality issue. Whenever public health and morality are put in opposition, it seems to me that public health at all times must come out as the dictating factor.
When I spoke to this Assembly and put the motion to establish this committee, I talked about the clear link that would exist between prostitution, illegal drugs and HIV. In fact the committee has discovered very little link, in reality, between the spread of HIV and prostitution at this stage. However, I think what is critical is that the potential for the spread of HIV still exists. It is something that the committee has dealt with by way of regulation. It is one of the overriding factors in our consideration.
Another factor in our consideration, of course, is the position of the power relationships that exist with illegal brothels and the power relationships, which we discussed in our earlier statement, between men and women as far as the issue of prostitution goes. Perhaps we have dealt with that at the point where we have suggested that street
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