Bills

Statutes Amendment (Decriminalisation of Sex Work) Bill

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (16:09): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935, the Equal Opportunity Act 1984, the Spent Convictions Act 2009, the Summary Offences Act 1953 and the Return to Work Act 2014. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (16:10): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill is a reintroduction of the 2015 private members' bill that was put before this place—and it passed in quite strong numbers—by the Hon. Michelle Lensink. This bill is based on New Zealand's decriminalisation of sex work model, which will serve the some 2,000 sex workers who are currently operating in South Australia to have legal protections and to safeguard their humans rights.

Protecting sex workers from exploitation, promoting the welfare and occupational safety and health of sex workers, and creating an environment conducive to public health, will be assisted by this bill. This bill amends the Summary Offences Act 1953, the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 and other parts of our laws to end an environment that criminalisation has created, an environment of stigma, discrimination and systemic exclusion that prevents sex workers from accessing health and support services and increases their risk of violence and abuse.

It also has silenced sex workers from reporting to the police such things as sexual abuse, harassment, domestic violence or damage to property caused by their clients. The model in this bill is supported by no less than Amnesty International, the World Health Organisation, the Secretary General of the United Nations (Ban Ki-moon), and many other relevant bodies.

The one thing that this bill embodies is the principle of 'nothing about us without us'. On that note, I seek leave to continue my comments on the next Wednesday of sitting so that those who are most affected by this bill can come and view it or listen to it on the stream. With those few words, I seek leave to conclude my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.