STATUTES AMENDMENT (SEX WORK REFORM) BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 18 July 2012.)

The Hon. A. BRESSINGTON (17:27): Today I rise to speak to the Statutes Amendment (Sex Work Reform) Bill which was introduced in the other place by the Hon. Steph Key as a private member's bill and which has now been introduced into this place by the Hon. Gail Gago as the Minister for the Status of Women.

These are, indeed, interesting times that we are working our way through in this parliament, or so it seems to me, anyway; perhaps members who have been here much longer than me see this as business as usual. This bill I find particularly interesting and the emotive words used by the Minister for the Status of Women to stir up feelings of compassion and the so-called right of women to choose with the illusion of freedom and liberation of women at the very core of her second reading explanation.

The minister indicated that she saw her role of introducing this bill into the house as a step forward for the rights of women and as an opportunity to legitimise what is portrayed as nothing more than consensual sex between two adults. The Hon. Steph Key in the other place has stated that this bill will offer a level of protection for prostitutes who are beaten or raped because currently they are unable to go to the police because they are engaging in an illegal act. This actually says more about that member's view of our police force than the plight of prostitutes, I believe.

In my view it seems that both women responsible for the carriage of this bill are at odds with what being involved in the world of prostitution really means, and I doubt very much that the legal status of the industry via this bill will do too much to improve the lives of many women. I would dare say that the majority of women who sell their bodies for sex are at serious risk of many levels of abuse.

In my previous life I have talked with many young women—and not so young—who were prostitutes. I met with their families and I watched how the sex trade tore families apart, and in many cases destroyed the women who got into this, not through choice but through necessity, because they were supporting a drug addiction. It is true that there may be some who engage in prostitution without using drugs, but in my experience they are few and far between.

This imagery that women are involved in prostitution as a desired career path is an insult to those who are trapped in a lifestyle for reasons that often go back to childhood sexual abuse and other traumas that scarred them emotionally and psychologically for life. Rather than offer these damaged women a way out, it seems that the ever apologetic left would rather legitimise this than offer any real solution for women to heal, move forward and have an opportunity to reach their full potential.

This time I acknowledge the speech made in this place on 18 July by the Hon. Dennis Hood, and congratulate him for the in-depth research put into that speech and for putting some of the realities of solid research on to the public record. I will not repeat the research he quoted, but rather keep my comments brief, using what I have seen for myself in my previous life as a meter for what would be considered by most to be a sad situation for women to find themselves in and a way of earning money that slowly but surely destroys the essence of that human being.

I speak from experience when I say that there is nothing pleasant or empowering for women to be submissive to men who use and often abuse them, and over time being lured into an underworld where basic survival is a daily task. There is no joy in this lifestyle, no matter where a women engages in sex with strangers for money, and there is no happiness in the lives of women who have shed their pride and self-respect and who often use drugs to block out the emotional pain and feelings of self disdain and hatred with which they battle daily.

I could list numerous case studies of women who came into our drug rehabilitation centre, and their stories were not ones of liberation or moving forward. They were sad stories, coming from broken human beings who believed they had no other choice than to expose themselves to pain and self hatred numerous times every single day of their lives. These are the girls who troll Hanson Road and other areas, often risking their safety, to earn enough to have a meal the next day and support their drug habits.

This bill will offer no protection, no way out for these prostitutes, who often have children to men they do not even remember. These children are the collateral damage of an industry of human misery that some in this place want to portray as a freedom of choice lifestyle, when nothing is further from the truth. I have been to the red light district in Kings Cross, I have been to the red light district in Brisbane and I have been to the red light district in Amsterdam, and at no time did I find a liberated woman.

I recall being asked to go to the place of business of Stormy Summers many years ago, which I did. Stormy and I spoke at length about the prostitution industry and how she wanted her girls to get help with their drug addiction. With retrospect it was not because she was too concerned for their welfare but rather because the drugs made them quite unreliable and unpredictable, and that was not a good recipe for a profitable business.

In fact, one of Stormy's girls was a client. She was just 17 at the time, a heroin addict who was also involved in pornography on the side to make a few extra bucks, and she had been a working girl for two years already. This girl was 17, going on 37. She had missed out on her teenage years and had by this tender age attempted suicide four times. Over a cup of coffee Stormy shared her views on these young women who were, by the way, making her a pretty penny and who had paid in full for an extremely lavish apartment above her place of business.

She had a fully equipped gymnasium, stylish furniture and more than enough room for her to live a very comfortable lifestyle indeed. I compared her lifestyle with the girl in question, who often slept in an alley, who often did not eat for days on end and who was unable to live with her family because of her crazy, erratic and often bizarre behaviour, where she had on more than one occasion physically assaulted her mother and younger sister when she had been unable to score.

When I suggested to Stormy that for any of her girls to successfully recover from their addiction they would be unable to work as prostitutes, she was less than enthusiastic and her words to me were, 'What is it with these girls today? When I first got into the game, it meant spending a few years on your back and setting yourself up for life. Now, they put it up their arm or up their nose, and are no good to anyone by the time they're 25.'

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind members of Emma Powalski, the young girl found beaten to death and her body dumped in a national park. There is no doubt in my mind that, had Emma been able to break away from those she connected with as a prostitute, she would still be alive today.

I recall caring for a young girl aged seven years old because her mother went AWOL for three weeks, and this little girl was found by her grandmother, locked up in a seedy bedsit with nothing more than a packet of biscuits and a few packets of potato chips that she had obviously been living on for quite some time. The place of residence for this girl was a house of horrors, and even after numerous reports to child protection, she remained with her mother, who would often disappear for days on end, and who would eventually remember she had a small child and ring her mother to go and get her until she came home.

This little girl had seen things that no adult should have seen, such as on one occasion when she saw her mother tied to a chair, beaten to a pulp and then raped, while she hid behind the lounge with a knife in her hand just in case mum's client realised she was there. She stayed in that room for two days until the perpetrator decided to move on. She called the ambulance, and again she was off to nanna's place to act out her confusion and her anger at life and the world.

This little girl, at the age of three, was her mum's lookout. She would sit out the front for hours waiting for mum's dealer or, if mum could not wait, she was sent out on a shopping expedition to find the dealer and score. She came to live with me when she was five years old because nanna could not cope with her behaviour any more and, over time, we talked quite a bit.

She was not your usual five year old. One night I asked her, 'What do you think you would like to be when you grow up?' and her response was, 'A prostitute.' When asked why, she said, 'Because my mum used to get all dressed up, and she looked really beautiful and she would come home with lots of money. When mum had a good night, we would do some fun things the next day. Once we even went to the zoo.'

I asked her if she knew what a prostitute did to earn that money and she said, 'Of course I do, I'm not stupid; you have sex and get paid lots of money for that.' I asked her, 'Do you remember any bad things that happened to your mum?' and she said, 'Oh yeah, but I'll be smarter than mum; I'll only have sex with nice men.' This is the side of the sex industry that is not talked about too much at all.

I recall that, after this little girl had been living with me for some nine months, one night she decided that she wanted to talk. I was taking in a load of washing and walked past her room, and she said, 'Ann, would it be okay if we talked for a while?' We sat down and had a chat, and this little girl said, 'I must have been such a bad baby,' and I said, 'Why do you say that?' and she said, 'Because of the way mum can't stand to be around me, and that must mean that this is all my fault.' I said, 'No, not at all, because adults do what adults do.' She said, 'Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and I feel like I've got this hole in my heart.'

I also recall another young woman in her early 20s who was seconded from her duties of pleasuring men to make a snuff movie. This young woman was two months' pregnant at the time. She had a wire brush inserted into her during the making of the movie, and afterwards was dumped in an alleyway to bleed to death. She was found by a passer-by, and an ambulance was called. She spent weeks in hospital undergoing surgery to repair her internal injuries, and two days after being released she returned to prostitution. Within a week, she was beaten to a pulp and returned to hospital. This young girl already had a two-year-old son who was being raised by her mother.

The collateral damage done on so many levels is inconceivable to most, and I could give many more examples to show that this is not a victimless career path that liberates women and encourages the right to choose, but I will not. I am afraid I have seen too much of the seedy side of the underbelly of this city to buy the rhetoric, to buy the argument that would see this industry of human misery normalised. The danger of course is that young girls will be lured into working as prostitutes because it is legal and, therefore, in the eyes of the young, legitimate. Believe me, it is very easy to get into and almost impossible to get out of, and Emma Powalski is testament to that.

To both of the women who are responsible for the carriage of this bill, I suggest that they put on their high heels and short skirts and go walk the dark streets of this city for a couple of nights to see the other side of prostitution and come back and report to this place on what a liberating experience they have had. Until they are prepared to do this then I do not believe they or anyone else is qualified to be championing this cause.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. G.A. Kandelaars.