Schools, kindys, churches across SA off limits for sex work

There would be 200 metre sex work exclusion zones across SA under a new proposal set to reach Parliament next week — and the Sunday Mail has mapped all 1900 areas. SEE THE NO-GO ZONES.

• Labor leader says no to sex work Bill
• Opposition to extra police sex work powers
• Sex work’s devastating legal legacy
• New Bill to decriminalise sex work

Sex workers will not be able allowed to operate within 200m of “protected premises”, such as schools, in South Australia under a proposed Bill to decriminalise prostitution.

Attorney-General Vickie Chapman told the Sunday Mail street soliciting would be prohibited near child care centres (with at least five children), kindergartens, preschools, primary schools, secondary schools and places of worship.

A 50m sex-work free exclusion zone around protected premises will apply in the Adelaide CBD.

Ms Chapman is also considering applying similar restrictions to brothels under a certification process which could also include character checks, and workplace and occupational health requirements.

The proposed amendments will be introduced on Wednesday when debate on a controversial Bill to decriminalise sex work in SA resumes.

Ms Chapman said the changes would address community concerns over where and how brothels would operate if legalised, and who could operate them.

Sex workers soliciting clients and clients soliciting sex workers in public places too close to protected premises will attract a maximum $750 fine.

Last week Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas said he would vote against the Bill in its current form because he feared it would allow brothels to open near schools and churches, would increase street work trade, and would allow organised crime to grow.

Councils are also worried about the possible effects of on-street solicitation that the current Bill would cause and that they would be handed regulatory responsibilities over sex work in their suburbs.

Ms Chapman said it would not be left up to councils to regulate brothels.

She said reviews into the New Zealand model, where sex work was decriminalised in 2003 and a brothel certification system was adopted, found no link between organised crime and prostitution.

She said additional police powers have been written into the SA Bill to search and investigate brothels. Ms Chapman said she had not been provided with any police evidence of bikies owning brothels in SA, despite Police Commissioner Grant Stevens raising concerns.

“It is not a dangerous industry. This is a quiet industry,” Ms Chapman said.

The aim of the Bill, introduced by Greens MLC Tammy Franks in May last year, is to give sex workers the same human, legal and workplace rights and protections from exploitation and discrimination as other workers.

This will be the 13th attempt in SA to decriminalise sex work since the 1980s. Sex work was decriminalised in NSW in 1995 and is regulated in Victoria, Queensland, the ACT and NT.

The Sex Industry Network says there are about 2500 sex workers operating in SA over the course of a year.