The Australian Christian Lobby today commended the Labor MPs and Liberal MPs who spoke in Parliament on Wednesday 30 October against the current Bill to decriminalise prostitution in SA.
ACL’s South Australian director, Christopher Brohier said today, “Chris Picton MP and Stephen Mullighan MP, both Labor shadow ministers, correctly cited the exploitation of women and the lack of any real controls over the operation of brothels, as reasons to oppose decriminalisation. Stephen Patterson MP and Steven Murray MP, both Liberal MPs, were right to say the main question is, ‘Do we want more or less prostitution in SA?’”
“Stephen Murray MP and Stephen Patterson MP referred to the evidence of the brutal treatment of women in decriminalised regimes, the effect that prostitution has on prostituted people (approximately 68% have PTSD) and that prostitution should not be portrayed as a legitimate career path for young women.”
“Importantly the four MPs indicated support for, or that they were open to, the Nordic or Equality Model of prostitution law reform, which decriminalises the selling of sex, criminalises the buying of sex and provides real exit strategies for prostituted people. ACL has argued long and hard for this model to be accepted” said Mr Brohier.
The ACL calls on SA Parliamentarians to follow MPs Mulligan, Murray, Picton and Patterson in rejecting the Bill and adopting a Nordic Model of prostitution law reform instead.
