Page 4844 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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setting up licensed premises near you. That is the problem in Victoria. One of the prostitutes collective workers told me that there is a brothel owner in Victoria who "weighs in the girls" each morning - who weighs them for body weight - and their fingernails and toenails are inspected and so on. How demeaning. It is no wonder that there were well-founded allegations that they are going back to clandestine activity in the suburbs in Victoria.
People who read a very well-informed article in the Sunday Age on 7 April 1991 by Mark Forbes headed, "Legalising Brothels: Victoria's Failed Experiment", can take into account the quandary that the Victorian Government is in. We need to be very careful that we do not get into the same quandary. But, at the same time, we do not want a tag-along approach and we do not want the wimpish sort of behaviour that has stopped legislators from acting and doing the right thing by the police, the workers and other people who may be exposed to risks, because a lot of people associated with this industry have a double life. Men go to these places without adequately informing or communicating that to their other partners. That is an issue we cannot hide from.
We must face up to it in this Assembly. I am aware that there may be some reluctance somewhere, but we need to get through this debate - if we do not finish it tonight, then in the next day or two - and determine exactly where we are going. From my point of view, we must not allow a situation where any reactionary element can say that this new ACT Government - or this Assembly - is going off now about fluoride, prostitution and so on. I can see it now. It would be an irresponsible person who would argue that case. We are talking about lives; we are talking about an attempt to look at what has happened elsewhere in our country and to do better.
I conclude by saying that the prostitutes collectives in all States, according to the Institute of Criminology, have supported the introduction of a system of decriminalisation. The institute said that it generally agreed that this is the most workable, realistic and compassionate option. Prostitutes do not favour differentiation between brothels and other businesses. They believe that they should be permitted to operate with similar business regulations and so on.
In my view, there must be decriminalisation, because a law that is not observed is a law in disgrace and it brings us all into disgrace. Of course, additionally, we must decriminalise with controls. The next step is to determine whether it will be a voluntary registration board, with occupational health and safety provisions and withdrawal of the police from all but criminal behavioural issues to do with ancillary concerns associated with these places. I think that is very important, and I believe that it is very relevant to the casino debate as well.
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