ACT Archdiocese calls for total overhaul of prostitution laws

By Anthony Barich
THE Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn has told an ACT Assembly enquiry into the Territory’s Prostitution Act 1992 it wants “a fundamental root and branch transformation” of the local community’s approach to the industry, going far beyond the Swedish model of criminalising purchasers of sex.

The Archdiocese calls for a thorough legislative overhaul to target those who create the demand for the use of women’s bodies, an aggressive programme to discourage those involved at every level of the trafficking trade and accompanying public education campaign and targeted exit programmes.
“It is not sufficient for a society to simply throw up its hands and seek to make accommodations because of the size of the problem or the choices of a few,” the submission said.  
“The aim is to change behaviour around this business and, through this, change the attitude that permits, even encourages, an industry which so transparently discounts the needs, dignity, equality and humanity of women and men.”
It also called for more health checks for men about to purchase sex and increased police powers to combat prostitution, but argued that the nation’s capital will never be a society of equality while it is legalised.
A recent study around sexual health clinics in Sydney’s western suburbs shows a significant proportion of sex workers are non-nationals and, in some instances, a preponderance are migrants from Asia, Africa and eastern Europe, it said. Much of this group could be classified as vulnerable and “on the evidence” it can be extrapolated that many have been trafficked, which is “a scourge on any society and an affront to any community which seeks to uphold the dignity of each individual”.
The Archdiocesan youth and young adults coordinator, Daniela Kesina, dismissed the notion that it is futile to stamp out such an “ancient profession”, and that prostitution is “merely a commercial transaction” in a column in The Canberra Times on 24 March.
“The slave trade was a very ancient ‘profession’ too. The fight was long and hard, but it was eventually won. No sensible person today would suggest its reintroduction. So society can change for the better, and that should always be our goal,” she said.
She urged the enquiry to assess the research and evidence of what is in the best interests of the women and girls in the industry, including evidence that criminalisation has helped to combat prostitution and human trafficking for sexual purposes.
“Rather than expanding or normalising prostitution, let us work towards the demise of this pitiful and damaging industry and strive for authentic gender equality,” she said.
Women’s Forum Australia co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist told the ACT Parliament Legislative Assembly Justice and Safety Committee on 11 May that the Territory’s Government was “complicit” in sexual violence against women when it accepted licence fees for brothels.
Also advocating the Swedish model and exit programmes, she said that women involved in prostitution had significantly higher rates of drug abuse and mental and physical health problems, and that the ACT Government was compromised by its “regulation’’ stance.
‘’To accept licence fees from money that has been obtained in such an unethical and harmful manner renders the ACT both complicit and compromised and we’d be interested to know how much money the ACT Government derives from such licensing fees,’’ she said.