The Western Australian Prostitution Bill 2011 is not a workable model of sex industry regulation for Western Australia, because of the significant barriers the laws themselves will create, and will be at significant expense to the taxpayer. The Prostitution Bill poses severe implications for the health, safety and rights of sex workers. It will also hinder the implementation of health promotion initiatives and is contrary to the objectives of the Australian Government’s National Strategies on HIV and Sexually Transmissible Infections.
It is our usual approach to offer feedback that would improve draft legislation however in this case the model of sex industry regulation this legislation is based on (a licensing framework) has proven ineffective in other states and territories and this Bill adds to this flawed framework an excessive, unrealistic regulation of individual sex workers. It is with great disappointment that we find that we must recommend this draft be abandoned and a decriminalised model of regulation similar to New South Wales and New Zealand be introduced.
