For our Western Australian supporters, please remember to keep up the fight against the legalisation of brothels in specific zones. The state government will read a Prostitution Bill in parliament soon which will ban prostitution from residential areas but license them to operate in other locations. Although this may seem like a reasonable idea, there is much sound research against this. Prostitution is exploitation of women and legalising brothels only legitimises this exploitation, with research showing it leads to an explosion in illegal prostitution.

We can all keep the pressure on our local politicians by writing emails to them, informing them that we don’t want them to pass this bill. An easy way to do this is to head to our Make a Stand website, click on the ‘Women are worth more’ , and follow the prompts. Many of the arguments against the bill and other insightful links are also on this webpage located under the more info tab. When writing your letter, please remember the following key points:

- Legalising brothels is a failed experiment. Queensland legalised brothels in 1999 yet 90 per cent of the sex trade is still illegal.

- The Government should consider criminalising the men who assume the right to purchase a woman for sex.

- Sweden has criminalised the purchase of sex, dramatically decreasing the demand for prostituted women and lowering the number of trafficked women in Sweden to 400, just two per cent of neighbouring Norway.