She went into the prostitution business thinking it would be a glamorous lifestyle, full of luxuries and cash. She’d seen the movie Pretty Woman and thought it would be like that. One Perth sex worker soon found out it was anything but. She lasted 11 or 12 years before she finally got out. By then she was addicted to any drug she could get her hands on.
This was just one of the real-life stories shown to a number of politicians last year. We can only picture what this woman went through during those years, but most of us will try not to — we don’t want to go there.
Of course, most of those who do go there didn’t want to either. Most would have been sexually abused as children and have incredibly low self-esteem.
They are normally drug-dependent and will certainly experience violence while working as a prostitute. Most will see no way out and many will attempt suicide.
It’s been termed the oldest profession in the world, and there are those who think it should be accepted and regulated like any other profession. The Prostitution Amendment Bill 2007 seeks to do exactly that. It was given the go-ahead by the WA Upper House last week under the guise of improving the welfare of prostitutes by decriminalising and regulating brothels.
Sounds great. Independent MP Shelley Archer was certainly a new recruit to the idea, especially since using her “balance of power” vote on this issue to make a trade with the State Government. Suddenly her commitment to refer the Bill to an Upper House committee for investigation went out the window, with that one cynically exchanged vote deciding the issue.
So why are so many people concerned about this legislation? Why have public meetings been held, petitions organised and policy experts flown in from overseas?
Perhaps it’s because of the credible researched evidence and expert testimony about the real harm to women on a far greater scale which results from legalising brothels. This is the harm which will now be perpetuated in WA unless the current Government or a future one has a serious rethink.
Let’s look at some of that evidence. Writing in Ten Reasons for Not Legalising Prostitution and a Legal Response to the Demand for Prostitution (2003), Janice Raymond says that decriminalisation of the sex industry is a gift to pimps, traffickers and the sex industry; promotes sex trafficking; expands the sex industry; increases clandestine, illegal and street prostitution; increases child prostitution; does not protect the women in prostitution; increases the demand for prostitution; does not promote women’s health; does not enhance women’s choice and is not something most women in the sex industry want.
In 2005, Mary Sullivan, of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Australia, wrote: “Attempts to treat prostitution businesses as similar to other mainstream workplaces actually obscure the intrinsic violence of prostitution. This violence is entrenched in everyday ‘work’ practices and the ‘work’ environment and results in ongoing physical and mental harm for women who must accept that in a legal system such violence has been normalised as just part of the job.”
In a 2004 paper, Prostitution Research and Education, Melissa Farley looked at examples from the 2003 New Zealand Prostitution Law and concluded: “Legal sex businesses provide locations where sexual harassment, sexual exploitation and violence against women are perpetrated with impunity. State-sponsored prostitution endangers all women and children in that acts of sexual predation are normalised.”
This is just some of the authoritative research showing the problems inherent in decriminalising the sex industry. Similar legislation in NSW and Victoria led to a massive expansion of the industry and the number of illegal brothels trebled, clearly demonstrating a policy failure.
Prostitution and sex trafficking go hand in hand, so we can also expect to see far more women being brought to WA from impoverished countries to provide “sexual services” for the rapidly expanding industry.
The tragedy of the prostitution Bill being passed is heightened by the fact that there was a far better alternative — the so-called Swedish model — which could have reduced the exploitation of women in WA’s sex industry. The research also points to its success.
After realising the mistake of going down the path of legalising the sex industry, the Swedish government passed laws in 1999 to criminalise the men who buy sex and the pimps who own brothels. The new laws saw the number of women involved in prostitution there cut by two-thirds, reduced the number of men buying sex by 80 per cent and led to a massive reduction in the number of women trafficked into the country for sexual purposes.
Former Swedish government adviser Gunilla Ekberg detailed the benefits of the Swedish model to politicians and the public during her visit to Perth last year, but the Government never gave them the consideration they deserved.
The WA Government has done the women and children of this State no favours in legalising brothels. Neither has Shelley Archer, who traded her crucial vote. The new laws will see prostitution normalised, female trafficking increased and the sex industry exploding. West Australians need to ensure this is not the end of the story.
Michelle Pearse, WA Chief of Staff, Australian Christian Lobby
Source : http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=54&ContentID=64313 |
