Page 2393 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 31 July 2018
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has become a barrier to sex workers accessing important health and outreach services. This bill will remove the requirement for sole operators to register with Access Canberra and, in doing so, improve social inclusion and the health of sex workers.
This amendment will also reduce red tape for sole trader sex workers.
The prohibition against providing or receiving commercial sexual services while infected with a sexually transmissible infection has also been removed. Up until now, the legislation has treated sex workers with STIs differently from other members of the community who have STIs. This bill will remove this offence. Instead, sex workers and their clients will be subject to the same requirement under the Public Health Regulation 2000 as the rest of the community, which is to take reasonable care not to transmit a transmissible notifiable condition.
Transmissible notifiable conditions are either determined by the health minister or declared by the Chief Health Officer as reasonable and necessary to protect public health. The Public Health (Notifiable Conditions) Determination 2017 includes a number of STIs such as chlamydia, gonorrhoea, hepatitis C, HIV and syphilis.
Sex work advocacy groups have told us that they strongly support this change. It not only removes discriminatory provisions but also recognises that there are members of the community with STIs who would proactively seek commercial sexual services from sex workers with the same health condition. This change recognises the legitimacy of the social and sexual needs of clients with STIs and the right of sex workers with STIs to continue to work in their occupation.
Sex workers will still be required to comply with the requirement under section 27(3) of the act that makes it an offence to provide or receive certain commercial sexual services unless a prophylactic is used. They will be required to take reasonable care not to transmit a transmissible notifiable condition.
There are also offences that protect sex workers and their clients from risk of exposure to STIs through damaged prophylactics. Brothel and escort agency owners and operators are also required to take reasonable steps to ensure that no person provides or receives certain commercial sexual services at the brothel or escort agency unless a prophylactic is used. It is an offence for brothel owners or operators to discourage the use of prophylactics.
As with other regulated professions in the ACT that engage with sections of the community, there are areas where government regulation of the sex work industry is of benefit to sex workers and their clients and necessary for the protection of children. However, one of the best ways to support sex workers is to ensure that their places of work are safe. This bill introduces a clear obligation for brothels and escort agencies to provide personal protective equipment, including prophylactics, to sex workers free of charge.
This bill also strengthens the laws protecting children from sexual exploitation by changing the offence of causing a child to provide commercial sexual services to an absolute liability offence, regardless of the child’s age. Currently, the act provides for
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