No young girl dreams of being a prostitute

Buying sex is now simply not acceptable. Strip clubs are banned. Hotels are encouraged to be Porn Free.

But perhaps the most incredible result is that Sweden now has the fewest trafficked women in the European Union with their national criminal investigation department reporting that approximately 400 to 600 women are trafficked into Sweden each year compared with 10,000 to 15,000 trafficked into Finland.

The laws have strong public support.Seventy per cent of Swedes support the government's approach. It is seen as an issue of human rights.

Evidence reveals that the vast majority, 89 per cent, of prostituted women want to leave prostitution if they are given an exit strategy. They suffer post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms equivalent to victims of war.

The average age of entering prostitution across nine countries including Australia is 14-15 years of age. This is not an adult choice. A high percentage of prostituted girls do not even get to grow into adulthood. Worldwide, the average age of death for prostituted persons is 34.

While other countries are taking an adult approach to the dignity of women, it would seem that Australia is moving further and further towards normalising men's entitlement to women's bodies.

A legal brothel on Queensland's Sunshine Coast brothel is offering a lunch time meal deal - an adult form of a 'happy meal' with a woman as a toy. Men buying women along with a meal at lunch time reduces the act of sex to a product with a woman as wrapping.

In 1999 the Beattie Government in Queensland legalised brothels. Peter Beattie claimed prostitution had to be regulated so women could be safe and not part of an illegal, unregulated system.

After fifteen years it is clear the system isn't working. A 2009 report by the University of Queensland on the Queensland law's tenth anniversary found that licensing brothels had little impact on illegal prostitution in the state.

In fact, the report found that many of the illegal escort agencies in Queensland are controlled by criminal syndicates which operate from interstate. Meanwhile Queensland Police report that mining towns in the state are increasingly being confronted with human trafficking. Many of the women cannot speak English and have low levels of education.

The assumption that a woman can be safe from harm in a State-sanctioned legal brothel is heroic. The assumption that this was going to somehow curb illegal prostitution has been proven false.

So successful has the Nordic model been, that there is no talk of reverting to legal brothels again.

If Australian State and Territory governments were serious about equality for women, they too would target the source of demand and criminalise the purchaser.

No one dreams of being a prostitute.