ACL’s Northern Territory Director (also Director for Qld), Wendy Francis, spent last week in Darwin and Palmerstone.

Just before Christmas 2020, ACL supporters in Darwin joined other advocates and organisations to oppose the application for a giant Dan Murphy’s megastore-liquor barn within walking distance of three dry aboriginal communities.

The ruling Labor party was conspicuous by its absence from a diverse Candidate forum in Darwin on Tuesday night. Twelve candidates from the Greens, Country Liberal Party, Territory Alliance, and the Animal Justice Party accepted the Australian Christian Lobby’s invitation to the forum but not one Territory Labor candidate appeared, despite all being invited.

A staggering 84% of Territorians objecting to brothels in their neighbourhoods or rural areas wasn’t enough for the Gunner government to reject a two-person brothel system. Disregarding significant community concern, the NT Minister for Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics has approved the two-person brothel model via a Planning Scheme Amendment to the Sex Industry Act, despite opposition from 101 out of 120 submitters to the Planning Commission.

Prostitution has always been a human rights violation.

Talk of prostitution and you’re likely to hear someone refer to it as the world’s ‘oldest profession’. Abolitionists however, who want to see an end to exploitation and trafficking refer to it as the world’s ‘oldest oppression’. Mind you, prostitution is not something that most people discuss in polite conversation. But talk about it we must, as the NT Government has released a law reform discussion paper on the NT Prostitution Regulation Act and they are asking for feedback from all Territorians on proposed changes that will normalize prostitution, brothels, and therefore, exploitation.