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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-07-17 Daily Xml
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SEX TRAFFICKING

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:59): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for the Status of Women concerning reports of sex slaves being trafficked in mining towns.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: An article in The Australian newspaper on 10 July, earlier this month, reported that at Mount Isa and other Queensland mining towns police are increasingly dealing with:

women…and girls who cannot speak English, or who have a very low level of English, and a very low level of education, who are basically being trafficked for sex, from one mining town to the next.

The report quotes the police as saying:

They are working on a fly-in, fly-out basis, two weeks here, two weeks in the next town and so on; they are being advertised as available in the local newspapers, and they are coerced or threatened into doing it...They are being told they cannot go to the police because in the countries they come from, the police might even be part of the problem.

They don't understand. The report continues:

Threats are being made against their families and whenever we have an operation to target them, they come into the station and you can see that they are being controlled mentally and physically and it's very difficult to get them to open up to authority and enable us to help them.

Prostitution, of course, has been decriminalised in Queensland, and the minister has introduced a bill to do the same in South Australia. My question is: in light of the fact that Queensland has previously decriminalised prostitution, as is proposed by the minister's private member's bill here in South Australia, can the minister give an absolute assurance to the South Australian public that, if her bill is passed, it will not result in the same widespread trafficking of women for sex as acknowledged as fact by the Queensland police to have occurred and be occurring there as we speak?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Tourism, Minister for the Status of Women) (15:01): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Indeed, I read the same article myself and found it to be an incredibly interesting and insightful piece. It certainly did outline a number of issues of concern, but it also interviewed a number of women who are obviously well educated and very articulate who are very pleased to be running very successful businesses to mining operations and who have been doing so for a number of years and without problems; so, I think that there are a number of different sides to this issue.

Indeed, if there are illegal practices occurring in terms of the illicit sex trade of women, particularly under-age girls, that is illegal in this state—in fact it is illegal in this nation—and any reports about that should be made to the appropriate authorities and those matters should be prosecuted accordingly.

We know that issues around prostitution are conscience matters, so obviously I am talking from my own personal point of view here. This is not a government policy position, but my personal view is that the best way to protect sex workers, the best way to protect the consumers of sex workers, the best way to protect the communities in which sex work occurs—and let us be frank, it occurs in almost all communities and has done since time began so it is nothing new there; it has always been, and what I can probably guarantee is that it will always be thus—and the best way to put those protections in place is to decriminalise prostitution.

In that way the doors are open on the industry and it is much easier to make sure that the proper protections and scrutiny are in place for sex workers and the consumers of sex workers, and it makes it much more open to those communities where these business practices are occurring, and, again, to make sure that proper protections are in place.

It is interesting. I have looked at a number of legislative and regulatory models, and I have to say that I have been much informed by the New Zealand experience. The New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act in 2003 decriminalised sex workers, and that was done with an aim to safeguarding the human rights of workers and promoting their welfare and also occupational health and safety.

I believe that a government committee reviewed the impact of that legislation about five years after the act had been in place. The committee found that the health and safety of sex workers had, in fact, improved largely because sex workers were more aware of their rights. As I said, the industry was more open to scrutiny and open to protection, industrial relations, occ health and safety, planning, etc. I understand that the committee also found no corresponding increase in the size of the sex work industry in relation to that model. I think we need to look at the facts and figures around these things very carefully. I do not believe that deregulating or decriminalising sex work in itself has demonstrated that it somehow produces a great influx in sex work activity.

The issue, though, of mining is one that, historically, we know that where mining industries have grown and developed, so too has sex work demand grown around that sector. I do not think there is probably anyone in this room who would be surprised about the correlation between those two industries. I still believe that the best way to ensure the protection and the health, welfare and safety of sex workers and the health, welfare and safety of sex work consumers and communities in which those businesses operate is to decriminalise the industry, open the doors, and to open up that industry to greater scrutiny and accountability.

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