As outlined in the 5th National Strategy on HIV/AIDS , the National STI Strategy and identified within the Queensland HIV, Hepatitis C and Sexually Transmissible Infection Strategy , the involvement of affected communities in health responses to HIV and STIs is vital to the effectiveness of health and support services. The overwhelming success of Australian sex worker organisations to date can be directly attributed to sex worker participation at all levels of their organisational structure, including staffing, policy development, management and evaluation.
Scarlet Alliance acknowledges and supports Queensland Health’s ongoing commitment to peer education and the facilitation of sex worker input into the review of sex worker services in Queensland.
Please find attached the Scarlet Alliance submission to the review of Queensland sex worker services, providing an evaluation of current and past services and our recommendations for future directions. Also included is an analysis of data acquired from our survey of individual Queensland sex workers, who identified their key needs in relation to service delivery, a number of gaps in previous service delivery and welcomed the opportunity to provide input into the development of a new and improved Queensland sex worker organisation.
Scarlet Alliance would like to request that, as per PONGHO recommendations (see Appendix 5), the report and recommendations of this consultancy be made available to all stakeholders. Scarlet Alliance will release our shadow report publicly. Scarlet Alliance would like to be able to assure Queensland sex workers that the review is progressing and that their issues have been put forward. We look forward to hearing from Queensland Health about future timelines.
