Consent discussion and negotiation are fundamental in sex work. Sex workers explicitly discuss consent, identify and negotiate implied consent, use non-verbal communication, and set and communicate boundaries every day, every shift and in every interaction.
In recent media coverage and political and public discourse renewing calls for stronger law and policy responses to sexual and gendered violence, sex workers in Australia have been scapegoated as being responsible for the behaviour of (mostly) male perpetrators. In October 2023, Liberal Party Deputy Leader Sussan Ley called for a halt to further development of strip clubs, asserting a link between erotic entertainment and family violence. In the recent federal budget, the Australian Government dedicated funding to a pilot scheme for mandatory age verification technology for online pornography as being necessary to ‘tackle extremely online misogyny,’ despite rejecting a mandatory age verification framework as being too technologically flawed nine months prior.
These claims were made without evidence, and have been largely repeated uncritically by media, advocates and policy-makers. This rhetoric positions sex workers as part of the cause of sexual and gendered violence in Australia, rather than recognising our unique experience of marginalisation as
victim/survivors, and our unique perspectives as consent experts.
Sex workers recognise that consent can be influenced by various factors, such as financial agreements or the use of protective measures like condoms. Importantly, sex workers understand that granting consent for one specific sexual activity does not automatically imply consent for any other activities. This intricate understanding highlights the expertise that sex workers have in navigating the complexities of consent in our work.
In this Inquiry, during state/territory law consent law reform, and in wider debates on law and policy responses to sexual and gendered violence, sex worker voices must be heard as expert stakeholders. Justice systems responses to sexual violence must be viable and accessible to sex workers, from consideration of making a complaint, interactions with police and services, and throughout any judicial process.
