ACT Justice Minister Shane Rattenbury says sex work is already decriminalised in the ACT, despite calls from the industry for further reform.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Rattenbury introduced draft laws into the Assembly on Thursday that, among other changes, would remove the need for sex workers trading alone to register as sole operators.
That effectively means all unregistered sole operators will no longer be breaking the law, if the bill passes.
Mr Rattenbury said the registration scheme had been a failure, with only 14 sex workers on the books.
However AIDS Action Council Sex Workers Outreach Program peer support worker Lexxie Jury said you "only needed to look in The Canberra Times at the adult services section to see there’s a lot more ads than 14 on any given day".
She praised the reforms but called on the government needed to follow up on recommendation from the 2010 inquiry to allow two or more sole operators to trade from one premise.
"I would really like to see it come through considering the attacks on sex workers that happened [in 2016]. I’m not saying that having two workers in one place would have stopped those attacks but I think it would have gone [some way] towards stopping those attacks," Ms Jury said.
Three men were convicted last year of the attacks on three sex workers at apartments in Reid and Braddon in 2016.
One of the survivors told the court how she was convinced she was going to die, as one of the attackers threatened her with a box cutter before sexually assaulting her.
Mr Rattenbury said the recommendation had been looked at, but was unlikely to pass the current Assembly.
He said sex work was not a crime in Canberra, and any further reform would require more work and more consultation with the community.
"For my mind the industry is decriminalised in the ACT. You are legitimately allowed to work as a sex worker in the ACT and it’s a perfectly legal thing to do," he said.
"There does seem to be a subtle discussion going on about what decriminalisation means. There are still offences and penalties around this industry, just as there are around many other industries in the ACT where there are regulations and limitations on how industries operate so I don’t think at this point the sex work industry is criminalised any more than other industries in the ACT."
