Damned if we do, damned if we don’t - the West Australian approach to sex workers

Even more outrageous is the police powers Barnett will bestow in order to implement such a huge range of new criminal offences sex workers would be facing. "[We will give] police the powers they need to successfully investigate and prosecute individuals engaging in prostitution outside [industrial areas]." Considering that police already have the power to enter premises without a warrant, stop and search people on suspicion that there is the intent to commit sex work, pose as clients and entrap sex workers into a criminal offence,\ (Prostitution Act 2000) what other police powers could the WA Government be considering?

Coming up with such laws surely is a tall order even for the WA police - they already have the power to go after soft target sex workers using publicly accessible advertising as intelligence, pose as clients over the phone to obtain sex workers' addresses and then choose to either raid and use condoms as evidence or to pose as a client and entrap their target. All obscene exploitations of sex workers' vulnerability as an already marginalised group.

As the decision in Canada highlights, laws that force sex workers to choose between compliance and safety are in violation of human rights. The Liberal Government may be looking for an electorally popular issue but they've chosen the wrong population to pick on. Sex workers are affected by HIV and increased criminality is in direct opposition to  health and human rights - these truths are acknowledged everywhere from the National Centre for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research to Ban Ki Moon in the UN. And as the decision in Canada highlights, laws that force sex workers to choose between compliance and safety are in violation of human rights.

Barnett may be looking for an electorally popular issue but he has chosen the wrong population to pick on. Sex workers have more friends and support than he has counted on - a recent poll by saw more than 66% of WA voters were in favour of removing criminal sanctions, and all research and health policy is pointing in that direction too. Get with the times WA - decriminalise sex work; less police powers, not more.