Michelle Pearse is the Australian Christian Lobby’s spokeswoman on prostitution and trafficking. She spoke to the ACL’s Katherine Spackman about the West Australian Government’s recently-introduced Prostitution Bill. Click here to listen to the interview. Click here to read a transcript.
Totally agree, with Michelle about the implications of the WA bill. I am a WA resident, and I have been following this legislation closely. the only portion of the bill that addresses the needs of workers, is to set up a fund to help workers leave the sex industry. It doesn’t outline how the fund would be used to acheive this. But to say we are creating a fund to help people leave the industry is a cop out…. It doesn’t address the damage caused by prostitution. The only way to address it, is to reduce it, not move it from suburbs to industrial zones
It was very disappointing to read about a politician in Kalgoorlie, who defended the brothels in that city, by claiming that they had tourism value and mining workers need an outlet for their sexual needs… I wonder whether the mining companies would support the view of the politician, that their male employees need acess to female prostitutes, especially given that they are equal opportunity employers.
It could be suggested that the mining boom, is also leading to a prostitution boom. Perhaps ACL could question the mining companies about their role in the expansion of prostitution in WA? Do they see that there is a moral issue with their employees using the services of prostitutes and contributing to the exploitation.
Michelle mentioned slavery…. There is definitely modern day slavery happening in WA. Asian women are being trafficked (brought to Australia) to work in the industry…
Our politicians need to realise that this bill only handballs the issue, it doesn’t fix anything.
Charlie