The Australian Christian Lobby has expressed serious concern over the Legislative Council’s 15-4 vote last night to send the Greens’ Prostitution Decriminalisation Bill (which decriminalises pimping) to the Committee stage.
ACL’s state director Mr Christopher Brohier said, “Despite Hon Clare Scriven’s particularly powerful speech in which she recounted the stories of survivors of prostitution, many members chose to support a Bill which will decriminalise and legalise profiteering from the selling of women’s bodies for the pleasure of men.”
What was promising, however, was Hon Frank Pangallo’s statement in support of the Nordic Model of prostitution law reform.
“The debate also revealed that there were an estimated 2,000 women in prostitution and about 200 brothels in Adelaide. We are extremely concerned that this number would inevitably increase if the Bill becomes law,” warned Mr Brohier.
ACL urges the members of the Council to carefully review the Bill during the Committee stage and reject it in the third reading as scrutiny will reveal that it is so flawed that it is impossible to remedy.
Instead, as Hon Frank Pangallo stated, the Council should adopt the Nordic Model of prostitution law reform which decriminalises the selling of sex, criminalises the buying of sex and provides meaningful exit strategies for women and men in prostitution.
