Holly In Griffith's Blog

Totally agree Holly. I hope that you posted this at http://www.pc.gov.au/publications/feedback. Send them a copy of the LASH report as well.

 

You may feel that nobody pays attention, but it's like a dripping tap and the more sensible feedback they get, the better the chance that the message will get through eventually. Changing entrenched prejudices like these is never going to be easy. You just have to keep going.

They just want it to appear to the general public, who have a very different opinion about the industry compared to what we do, that they are actively doing something to make the world a better place.. In reality it's just full of untruths!

 

Bit like that MP from Western Australia that was happy to help pass the new laws over there if a few changes could be made to it.. One of them being, providing a shelter for women to live in to get out of the industry and to be saved. Umm, yeah right?! Because I am going to leave my waterfront apartment to live in a shelter! And Saving me? Well I saved myself, and made something of my life, by getting into this industry! It's given me opportunities I could have only dreamed of before..

 

Yes, there is a need to provide assistance for "some" sex workers to exit the industry.. But to think its the majority is just dillusional. I'd say 99% of sex workers I know, do this by choice and don't need to be saved!

 

Rahhh! There's my rant for the day!

 

henry, i just sent it to your link wont do any bloody good but hey worth a shot

 

Nia, that MP from WA sucked and now things in WA look to be getting even worse...

No one is listening....

 

GRRR

I first heard of this about three weeks ago (and I admit to being remiss in not posting about it at the time ...) on the ABC news one morning. Link Here. I looked at the Productivity Commission report and found it curious that the four pages or so relating to brothels out of 700 pages was what made the news report. I note that in the Productivity Commision Report, they quote from a paper by William Albon (the Victorian Chris Seage ...).

 

But the basic theme of the report was how differing Local Government regulations make it difficult for businesses and ways to get around that. Except when the business is a brothel.

its always a case of "except when the business is a brothel or has sex involved"

 

GRRRR

Holly, I read the Lash Report and was very impressed with it. I noted that Victorian Legislation fell way short of "Best Practice".

 

I can only sympathise with your frustration at the underlying mentality of ignorance behind the new report.

henry, i just sent it to your link wont do any bloody good but hey worth a shot

Don't think like that Holly (won't do any bloody good). Learn the lessons of history. If people in the past who were against seemingly insurmountable odds had thought like that, India would still be a British colony and Africans would still be slaves in America. Ghandi and Martin Luther King (and others) were dripping taps.

I'm afraid I can't get as angry about it as you.

 

The report gives a number of reasons why local government authorities are not the appropriate agency for dealing with illegal brothels.

 

The argument is complicated by the fact that there are different sorts of "illegal brothels" in Australia.

 

In Victoria, it's probable that if a WL hires a hotel room and meets a client there for a single booking and then leaves, that hotel room is an illegal brothel while the lady is in it.

 

There are also illegal brothels that are RnT parlours offering happy ending massages and often more.

 

Then there are illegal brothels where underage sex slaves are employed: hopefully there aren't many of them, but there are some.

 

Personally, if underage or coerced women are involved, I'm more than happy for the police to be involved and to prosecute the perpetrators as hard as they can.

 

With the private WL in a hotel situation, the real problem is that it shouldn't be illegal at all; the problem is not whether the local council or the police are the ones to worry about it. As a matter of fact, there never is a problem in that situation because nobody knows about it, unless the WL stays for a week and sees streams of drunk and unsavoury clients. Even then the hotel is only likely to kick the lady out rather than call in the police or the council and out itself as an illegal brothel.

 

RnT parlours also, again there's not much difference it seems to me whether the local council or the police close them down.

 

The report reads to me like local councils looking for an excuse not to have to worry about sex workers.