Page 4840 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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The prostitution laws in Australia vary, and I commend to members the Australian Institute of Criminology "Trends and Issues" paper No. 22, which contains the best summation of the situation of laws criminalising prostitution that I have seen in any document. There is a table there that sets out the laws punishing prostitutes for what they do. Shamefully, they punish those women, essentially, and not the men. It sets out in another table laws criminalising prostitution related activities.
The situation varies all over the country and the only place where the law is - if you will excuse the term, Mr Deputy Speaker - hardening is Queensland, where the Queensland Government is taking us back to the nineteenth century with its decision simply to eliminate prostitution. Surely, that must be one of the most retrograde steps, socially, that is happening in our country. It is also one of the most optimistic steps that one could imagine.
I will not go through that paper, but I believe that "Trends and Issues" No. 22 of the Institute of Criminology is an excellent document. It shows that some jurisdictions still punish prostitutes, who are mostly women, and that there are variations about escort agencies, massage parlours and the rest. It concludes with an enlightening section on prostitutes' perspectives. It is said that the problem in Victoria is that:
... legislation has forced many of the state's 4500 prostitutes to work in uncontrolled escort agencies or on the streets. Prior to 1984 there were about 150 brothels in Victoria. Currently there are 58, all with permits. The surplus -
that is the term used -
of prostitutes created by this system have either had to retire or risk working in illegal prostitution.
The reports that I have received in conferences indicate, sadly, that the Victorian legislation has resulted in significant moves back to clandestine and, under those laws, illicit activity. The Victorian situation is seen as a noble experiment that has not worked; and, in fact, on the advice available to me, the Victorians have not even finished introducing the package of reforms that they originally set out to implement.
Of course, the Prostitution Regulation Act 1986 in Victoria was intended to bring in sweeping changes to regulate the sex industry. However, a large part of the Act has never been proclaimed and, among others - and this is significant - the provisions dealing with the establishment of a brothel licensing board have eluded the confidence of the legislators in Victoria and the Victorian Parliament was a game legislature for a long time. I believe that the
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