Click here to read ACL's submission to the euthanasia inquiry in Tasmania.

Click here to read the Australian Christian Lobby's submission in response to the NSW Opposition Discussion Paper, The Protection of Religious Freedoms.

Click here to read ACL’s submission to the Attorney-General’s Department on the draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill.



 

Click here to read ACL's submission to the inquiry into Not-For-Profit Tax Concession reforms.

Below is a copy of ACL Chief of Staff Lyle Shelton's statement to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. It is currently holding an Inquiry into Slavery, Slavery like conditions and People Trafficking in Australia:



Thankyou Chair for the opportunity to address the sub-committee.



Whilst your inquiry is quite broad encompassing slavery and people trafficking in all its forms, ACL is one of several submitters to focus solely on the issue of sex-trafficking.



We support the good work that is being done to eradicate non-sexual slavery, particularly of children.



However, we are concerned that our society is blind to the drivers of the demand for out-of-control global trafficking of women and that countries like Australia unwittingly support it through our ignorance.



The International Labour Organisation estimates that 4.5 million people are victims of “forced labour for sexual exploitation”.[1] This is 43% of the forced labour population.



The industry is estimated at between US $7bn and $19bn.



It is a sad indictment that 200 years after William Wilberforce and the men and women of the Clapham friends won their long-running human rights campaign against the English Parliament to abolish slavery in the British Empire that today there are more people in slavery than ever.



We know this is a Commonwealth inquiry but trafficking of women for sex cannot be considered without acknowledging the role State Governments play, perhaps unwittingly, in fostering demand.



Since the 1980s several State Governments moved to legalise prostitution and the establishment of brothels.



The rationale was that regulating prostitution would cause it to become safe for women and that illegal prostitution would be minimised.



Of course the evidence has been to the contrary with the illegal industry blossoming everywhere a culture of State-sanctioned prostitution has been established.



This has in turn put pressure on the legal industry to compete which has in turn gone to government asking for the strict controls – put in place to protect women – to be loosened.



In short the system is a failure and this was epitomised by the tragic death of a 17 year-old girl of a drug overdose in a legal Canberra brothel in October 2010.



We know from evidence that Australia’s culture of legal prostitution – ie treating it like any other form of work – makes it easier for traffickers to lure women into sexual slavery in legal and illegal brothels here.



The warnings have been sounding for some time.



In 2004 the UK Home Office in its landmark study of global prostitution regulation noted that “Victoria and New South Wales were the two worst states for the abuse of children through prostitution. The trafficking of East Asian women for the purpose of prostitution was also found to be a growing problem.”



Our submission documents how the UN, the University of Goettingen and the Seoul Metropolitan Policy Agency note that Australia is seen by women traffickers as an attractive destination.



The University of Goettingen, in a study this year, has also strongly linked legal prostitution with increasing the demand for trafficked women.



One part of the world has made inroads in the battle against trafficking of women and that is the Nordic region.



Having tried Australia’s approach to legal brothels and found it exploitative and violent against women, Sweden introduced a new policy approach in 1999.



Instead of criminalising prostituted women, the hard edge of the law fell on the purchaser of sex.



Just as a prohibition on murder doesn’t succeed in stamping out all killing, neither has the Swedish approach been a cure-all.



However, it has dramatically lessened the harm to women of prostitution and has made Sweden an unattractive place for sex traffickers.



Other Nordic countries have adopted this approach with early success.



The European Parliament has found that “traffickers have had problems finding enough sex buyers in Sweden, the demand has been much lower than expected”.



The Coalition Against the Trafficking of Women say in their submission that “Countries that have legalised or regulated prostitution are those into which the highest number of women are trafficked.”



ACL submits that we cannot seriously tackle sex slavery into Australia until we join the dots between the legalisation of brothels and the demand this creates for trafficked women.



We respectfully submit that pressure has to be put on State Governments to consider the Nordic policy approach in order to begin to address the scourge of sex slavery.

Click here to read ACL's submission to the Joint Standing Committee's Inquiry into Slavery, Slavery-like Conditions and People Trafficking.



Click here to read the transcript of ACL's appearance at a public hearing (pages 35-42).

MEDIA RELEASE



For release: Wednesday, October 24th, 2012



The Australian Christian Lobby has called on the New South Wales government to take urgent action and prohibit the purchasing of sex following the suspected stabbing death of a man in a Sydney brothel last night.



ACL NSW Director David Hutt said it was time the state government tried a new approach to prostitution. “Legalised prostitution is a failed experiment,” Mr Hutt said.  “Last night’s tragedy is the latest in a long list of violent crimes connected with the New South Wales sex industry.”



Mr Hutt cautioned the government against its plans to introduce a brothel licensing regime.



“Queensland has already tried brothel licensing,” he said. “It didn’t work. Even after the introduction of brothel licensing, 90 per cent of prostitution in Queensland is carried out illegally.



“Brothel licensing won’t do anything to stem the tide of women being trafficked to Australia and forced into prostitution. It is time for a new approach.”



The Australian Christian Lobby recently made a submission to the NSW Government inquiry into brothel licensing and called on the state government to adopt the successful Nordic approach which prohibits the purchasing of sex.



Recent facts about prostitution in Australia:



·         July 2012 – Korean police arrested 18 pimps and traffickers allegedly involved in trafficking women to Australia



·         June 2012 – the US State Department identified Australia as a destination country for trafficked persons



·         June 2012 – NSW Land and Environment court overturned the City of Sydney’s refusal to grant a development application for Australia’s largest brothel



·         April 2012 – Watcheraporn Nantanhkum became the first person convicted of slavery in the Australian Capital Territory for holding a woman in sex-servitude



·         February 2012 – Federal police rescued three trafficked, Thai girls from a legal, Western Sydney brothel

MEDIA RELEASE

For release: Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has recommended the New South Wales Government join the growing list of progressive countries that are prohibiting the purchase of sex, in a submission to the government’s review of brothel legislation.

Read more

Click here to read the ACL's submission to the NSW government's review of brothel legislation.

On 27 August 2012, Victorian Director Dan Flynn presented the submission of the Australian Christian Lobby to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into sexting. Click here to read the submission.



Sexting refers to the increasing practice among young people of taking indecent pictures of themselves and transmitting them to another on smartphones and computers. Significant harm may follow,including harrassment and bullying-particularly when images are forwarded to others.



ACL pointed out that once the image is taken and forwarded the creator has no control over the use that the image will be put to. The dangers of sexting include permanent damage to the subject's digital footprint. Incidents of harassment related suicides resulting from sexting were referred to and recommended that priority should be given to education programs in schools that alert students to the harmful effects.



ACL supports legislative amendment that would currently see young people naively sexting facing charges of creating child pornograhy with potential terms of imprisonment and registration on the Sex Offenders Register for 8+ years, charged with a more suitable offence, in appropriate cases.



However ACL does not support the decriminalising of sexting. Mr Flynn said that decriminalisation would send a message that it is now "ok " to sext and would result in an increase in this dangerous practice.



ACL also submitted that any new legislation must ensure that genuinely predatory adults are placed on a Sex Offender Register when guilty of producing or transmitting child pornography.



The submission called on the Victorian Government to request the Federal Government to implement its promised mandatory Internet filter of "Refused Classification" material-a practical measure to reduce the "sexualisation of culture" and protect children.



The Victorian Law Reform Committee will report to the Parliament later this year.



Click here to read the transcript.