The immorality of Victoria's prostitution laws

Neither the government, sex worker peak body, or brothel recognize the social and economic inequality of sex workers. A recent Consumer Affairs of Victoria Report into the Brothel Industry concluded that the major driver for women entering the industry was financial need. Prostitution was particularly attractive to single mothers, students, and young indigenous people, where opportunities for other work are limited by the lack of training and skills. The young are particularly vulnerable.

Although those advocating the legalization of prostitution highlight issues like job flexibility and higher financial returns than other forms of work, the physical and emotional costs, violence and stigma are huge costs for the individuals concerned. Sex work can be extremely destructive upon a person's sexuality, where dissociation from mind and body is often necessary to cope, which can lead to alcohol and drug dependency. Many sex workers have deep psychological issues that need urgent attention, not to mention assistance in financial planning and management. Prostitution in many cases is a route to poverty rather than out of poverty, often inducing sex workers into pastimes like gambling as a means to cope with the stresses of handling up to 20 customers a day.

These are areas of concern totally missing from the Victorian approach to prostitution. Legislation that was seen as a solution, now appears to be the cause of the problem.

There is a deep assumption in the Victorian law that society needs to be protected from sex workers as they are social misfits who shouldn't be seen. This assumption makes it so difficult for sex workers to acquire licenses, that they must flaunt the law and operate illegal brothels to survive, with the consequent legal risks attached. Most importantly the law is keeping these 25,000 people on the fringe of society where they are open to violence and exploitation, where sex workers have the mere status as sex objects for a multi-million dollar industry. The laws have allowed male domination in what should be and industry primarily operated by females. The laws have created legitimate pimps who profit off the earnings of prostitution, where other models like setting up sex worker cooperatives could have been considered.

The laws have protected licensed brothels and made illegal brothels owned and operated by sex workers themselves vulnerable and marginal. The barriers to entry are now so high, sex workers cannot aspire to operate their own premises legally.

The immorality of the Victorian prostitution laws lies in that they allow others to exploit vulnerable sex workers. The only thing the Sex Work Act has achieved is to replace the word pimp with the phrase 'legitimate business operator', which has inflicted unnecessary pain and suffering on the victims of the sex industry, the sex workers themselves.

Any legislation that empowers employers over employees should be subject to social scrutiny, and this should also be the case in the sex industry. With the state of Victoria allowing continued exploitation of the vulnerable in society, one has to ask on what moral grounds the Premier of Victoria Denis Napthine refuses to review the State's sex laws.