One of the odd little facets of sex industry law in Australia is that, due to having a relatively small number of states in our continent-covering-country, we have a different model of sex industry legislation in almost every state. New South Wales has decriminalised sex work, demonstrably the best option for sex workers. Victoria, the Northern Territory and Queensland have differing systems of legalised sex work, each state with its own variation on regulation and registration. Sex work in South Australia is still criminalised, a bit of information that surprises a lot of people. Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have weird, complex, mish-mashes of legalisation, decriminalisation and criminalisation, that require far too much research to navigate. And Western Australia… well, even Western Australia isn’t sure what it’s doing at the moment.
This system, of variation between the states and often confusion within them as to what is and is not illegal, directly impacts Australian sex workers and migrant sex workers who travel to Australia to work. It’s quite common for sex workers to move between Australian states for work, and are often unaware that they’ve crossed into an area when part or all of their preferred services and working conditions are criminalised. Similarly, sex workers who work in states that do not require registration can find themselves in trouble if they move to a state that does require registration and fail to register.
An example is New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. If you look at the map here you can see that the area called the ACT is entirely within the borders of NSW. I’ve crossed over the border a few times without even realising it, and while most Australians are aware on some level that the two areas have different governments, you don’t tend to think of them as having different laws unless you’re affected. Like, say, if you’re a HIV positive sex worker. In that case, you’d be permitted to work in NSW, but not in the ACT… as was made all too public in 2008, when a HIV positive sex worker in the ACT was prosecuted and gaoled (and outed, and bullied in the media) simply for working. They did not manage to establish that he had caused a single infection.
As I briefly mentioned in my post about the Australian Response to HIV, over the years several Australian sex worker organisations have succeeded in obtaining funding from various sources to provide peer based resources to their respective sex worker communities. These organisations, usually state-based, are underfunded and have a hell of a time convincing their funders that they should be doing more than fighting STIs STIs STIs!! all the freakin’ time. But then, it’s a seemingly impossible task to convince funders (particularly government) that health promotion and education amongst sex workers goes a lot better if we’re not viewed as simply a concentrated batch of diseased cocks and cunts.
Up until two years ago, the Queensland based sex worker organisation was SQWISI … at least, up until it it was abruptly defunded and ceased to exist, leaving Queensland sex workers with no targetted sex worker services. The history of that particular decision is its own post. It’s what’s happening now that I want to talk about.
Over the last two years, the gap in Queensland sex worker services has been filled by two entirely volunteer run organisations (United Sex workers North Queensland and the Crimson Coalition) who in conjunction with Scarlet Alliance and Queensland-based sex workers, have been lobbying constantly and generally raising hell to demand funding for a combined sex worker organisation (and copping the whorephobic crap that comes with doing so). Their hard work finally paid off this year, with funding being received to develop a state-based combined sex worker organisation called United Sex Workers Queensland. It will be run by and for sex workers and should hopefully be in operation later this year. A peer-based organisation was an absolute definite priority, and it’s fantastic to see that particular little dream coming true.
Because they’re awesome, the groups in question have been running a lot of sex-worker-only consultations and such, as well as seeking input from Queensland sex workers through the net and via phone. If you’re a current or former sex worker in Queensland and would like to attend their next consultation or event, keep an eye on the Crimson Coalition’s website or their blog. They will also be looking for staff, volunteers and members, all of which will be sex worker only roles. They also plan to have space for non-peer supporters, although the specifics of those roles are as yet uncertain.
I’m unsure how much more I can say about what’s going down in the development of the new organisation without getting smacked for spilling as-yet non-public information, so I’ll leave it at that. I hope this hits the eyeballs of at least a few Queensland based sex workers. I’ll be covering the development of the new organisation over on Hexpletive throughout the rest of the year.
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