Page 5030 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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her comments in particular on the effects of legislation which decriminalises, particularly the effects on girls who are sought by procurers for the profession of prostitution, to use that old phrase.
I would like to quote her closing section, which certainly reflects the way I feel about the matter:
In Australia in the 1990s we can, alas, no longer talk of "virtue".
People are made fun of for doing that. She says:
Unfortunately it appears to have no public standing as a concept any longer.
I certainly regret that. I do not think Bishop Power or Bishop Dowling would say that. Professor Byrne continues:
But we are talking of responsibility and restraint, of control by men who do not need to use prostitutes; and we are talking of direct action to prevent injury and harm which prostitution causes innocent children, girls and women and innocent families; and to society by providing a seedbed for organised crime.
She makes this connection between prostitution and organised crime. The crime connection is not limited to casinos. That is only a small part of it, and that is not what I am on about here. Professor Byrne goes on:
And we are talking of the men who still predominate in government and in leadership positions, ceasing to condone through an inappropriate sense of "mateship", or to tolerate as a sign of "encouraging virility", the uncontrolled sexual behaviour of other men as natural, to be accepted with a blind eye, to be regarded as inevitable. This is wrong, by any standard. It is for men as well as women to act to cut back prostitution in Queensland as unacceptable, harmful, a social evil and a practice subject to severe legal penalties. To do otherwise, would be to push society to amorality: the absence of any recognition of right and wrong. It would be to create a society where the concept of public good, public health, public protection, no longer had currency. It is to be hoped that we do not see such a day.
(Extension of time granted) I will be opposing this Bill in any of its parts as presently put forward. I hope that Mr Moore, who I think has worked very hard on this matter, would welcome reading Professor Byrne's comments. I do believe that, having read them, he would change his Bill.
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