Page 3176 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 November 1992
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Historically, the Catholic Church has tried to do what is possible to help prostitutes to escape from their enslavement and to be rehabilitated. Currently, there are two Good Shepherd Sisters working among prostitutes at Kings Cross in Sydney.
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Canberra would be done a great disservice if any legislation were to appear to be condoning prostitution and encouraging its spread.
That would seem to contradict the statement by Ms Szuty that the Catholic Church was not expressing strong disagreement with the Prostitution Bill.
To sum up, the legislation gives the stamp of approval to prostitution that would encourage prostitution amongst young people. There has been no call for such legislation from the community, police, families or young people. While it may be model legislation, do we need model legislation for porn videos, legalised drugs, prostitution, gambling and so on? I also indicate that after the in-principle debate I will move to adjourn debate on the matter.
MR MOORE (11.43), in reply: Madam Speaker, what we have heard today is a very healthy debate and the result of a great deal of consultation. I appreciate the comments made by Mr Connolly, Mrs Carnell, Ms Szuty and Mr Humphries.
It is important for me to identify a couple of issues that I have been prepared to compromise on for what I think is going to be the best prostitution legislation in Australia. The first of those is the health issue that Mr Humphries and Mrs Carnell raised. I have moved my position on this since bringing down the report on prostitution. It seems to me that, if we are going to consider the importance of population health, then we ought to follow the strategy that the World Health Organisation advocates and empower people to make their own decisions about their health. If we were to take that approach we would be leaving the responsibility for testing to the workers themselves. I believe that that is the appropriate approach. However, I have not been able to convince other people of that. Considering the compromises that other people have made, I think that we are going to come up with the best piece of legislation.
Secondly, as far as I am concerned, the compromise that has been made on police involvement is satisfactory. However, I think the ideal situation would be that police treat prostitution in the same way as they deal with any other area of legislation. If they feel that a law has been broken, then they ought to get a warrant. The Minister has agreed that this should be reviewed in a couple of years' time. That is a satisfactory approach. Police involvement is narrowed to simply dealing with cases where police officers believe on reasonable grounds - and they would have to identify those reasonable grounds - that child prostitution is taking place. I think the issue is of such importance that it is an acceptable compromise.
On the issue of reviewing the legislation, it does not matter how well we think we are legislating at the moment. There is no doubt that in moving into an area such as this we are likely to run into some difficulties. Therefore, it is appropriate that the whole legislation be looked at and reassessed within a couple of years. That is an issue that members should be conscious of. Hopefully, we have done well enough and the review will mean only very minor changes, but we are very conscious of the situation in Victoria that a number of members have mentioned.
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