Jessica Marszalek: Queensland review into sex workers must address safety fears

Sex work exists in Queensland, so why shouldn’t sex workers deserve to feel safe in their jobs, asks Jessica Marszalek.

IT may be the world’s oldest profession – or so the saying goes – but prostitution is largely still illegal in Queensland.

Shortly, but after years of stalling, the Palaszczuk Government will ask the Queensland Law Reform Commission to inquire into the decriminalisation of sex work in Queensland and report back on the best way to regulate it.

Currently, there are two legal forms of sex work here.

The safety of sex workers is under review. Picture: iStock

Sex work can be provided in a licensed brothel – there are 21 across the state, but only one is outside the southeast, in Cairns. Outcalls from those brothels are prohibited.

Sex workers can also work alone from a premises, providing either in-house calls, outcall services, or both.

That’s what those ads are you see in the newspaper, although they are heavily regulated and it’s illegal to detail what’s on offer, even by acronym or code.

All other forms of sex work in Queensland are illegal, although it by far makes up the majority of services being offered.

Escort agencies, unlicensed brothels, massage parlours, street workers who publicly solicit and two or more sex workers providing prostitution from a single premises are all illegal.

It is legal for police to pose as clients and charge people operating outside the law.

Feedback from sex workers is that these rules actually make things more unsafe for them.

For example, they aren’t allowed to work in pairs or with someone who can provide them protection, have a secretary screen or book their clients, or even ‘check-in’ with a colleague before or after a call-out because all communication between sex workers or third parties could be considered knowingly participating in the provision of prostitution, which is a criminal offence.

They say they’re daily having to make the decision to work safely, or work legally.

The QLRC grappled with another safety issue when it considered changes to consent laws recently.

Proposed changes to consent laws have also raised safety queries. Picture: iStock

If a person promises to pay for sex and then doesn’t, is that rape?

The QLRC heard complains there was a lack of clarity around what crime was committed when consent was obtained or induced by a lie about money.

The QLRC suggested there were other offences that related to the procurement of a sexual act by fraud of false pretences, but that the issue of consent was one that turned on the facts of individual cases.

Ultimately, it made no recommendations to change the law to give specific protection to sex workers.

“This issue potentially raises broader policy issues relating to the regulation and protection of sex workers, in addition to issues surrounding their perceived treatment within the criminal justice system, which are outside the scope of this review,” it found.

However, one legal stakeholder was of the view that: “A better way to protect sex workers would be to reform the law of that industry, particularly where at present a sex worker who has someone assisting with protection and recovery of money is breaking the law.”

The main focus of the QLRC’s upcoming review will be around the safety of sex workers and putting in place proper regulation so the industry doesn’t have to operate in the shadows.

NSW was a leader in this space, decriminalising sex work way back in 1995 after the state was left reeling from the Wood Royal Commission into NSW Police that found “a clear nexus between police corruption and the operation of brothels”.

NT did so in 2019, and South Australia and Victoria are following suit, with their own inquiries happening now.

The upcoming review was celebrated at last week’s Labor state conference, with decriminalisation having been part of the party’s platform for a while now.

“Sex workers know what needs to change,” one woman told delegates last Sunday.

“Criminalisation of sex work creates significant barriers to reporting crime, and leaves us without the basic rights and safety of other workers and we look forward to contributing the stories and experiences of sex workers in Queensland into this review.”

As Justice Margaret McMurdo conducts her own separate, broadscale review into the experiences of women with the justice system with the goal of improving justice and safety for all women, it’s hard to reconcile why sex workers don’t deserve to feel as safe as possible.

Sex work is a fact. Why not make it safer?