Sex work Gold Coast: ‘Partying prostitutes’ blamed for ‘destroying lifestyle’ in canal estates

Partying prostitutes “destroyed the quiet family lifestyle” of the Gold Coast’s prestigious canal estate areas, sparking a crackdown from a city leader.

The state government is moving to finally decriminalise prostitution in Queensland and regulate it.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman this week announced sex work would be brought “out of the dark and properly regulated” in a move described as the largest shake up to the industry in decades.

It comes following a review from the Queensland Law Reform Commission.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman Picture David Clark

“Current laws stigmatise sex workers, it increases their vulnerability to exploitation and violence,” Ms Fentiman said during the week.

“We need to bring sex work out to off the dark and properly regulate the industry particularly for the safety of workers.”

It’s a big step forward and follows moves made in the late 1980s to try and regulate the industry following revelations in the Fitzgerald Inquiry about the state of sex work and illegal prostitution on the Gold Coast and Brisbane.

Gold Coast Bulletin front page, April 8, 1982.

It had been an issue for many years before that.

It was 41 years ago this month in April 1982 when the Bulletin’s front page brought news about hard partying prostitutes.

“Partying prostitutes were destroying the quiet family lifestyle of prestigious canal estate areas, so said new Albert Shire councillor Terry Morris.” the Bulletin reported at the time

“Cr Morris launched an attack on the call girls who he claimed were invading the residential paradise of the of the Coast’s canal estates.

Cr Morris said he had received reports from residents who he said were “particularly upset by a massage parlour allegedly operating out of a waterfront house in Hooker Boulevard.”

The Bulletin reported there had been “rude romps on lawns which fronted the canals and about other scenes with men “strolling impatiently up and down in front of the house”.

Former councillor Terry Morris. Photograph; Renae Droop.

Cr Morris said residents who moved to the canals for a quiet family life had been unable to hold barbecues in their backyards for fear of being confronted with scenes of men and women “cavorting” on the opposite bank.

A senior police officer told the Bulletin at the time it was difficult for police to act if only one woman was conducting the business.

He said the police had received complaints before about brothels in houses and where there were two or more women operating they were able to stop the business.

Fast-forward five years to May 1987 and the airing of the famous ABC Four Corners report The Moonlight State which helped initiate the Fitzgerald Inquiry and changed the state forever.

The inquiry lifted the lid on decades of corruption in the police force and the state’s long-time conservative government and brought down towering figures, including the premier himself,

Russ Hinze

Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen and Gold Coast-based “Minister for Everything” Russ Hinze.

In the months before his fall, Hinze was in-line to become succeed Sir Joh and vowed “a bit of a sweep-out” if he succeed Sir Joh and would ‘very quickly’ introduce poker machines and legalise brothels.

Hinze, who had been the South Coast MP for more than 20 years, said he was keen to see gambling laws change.

“I’ve got strong views on poker machines. I’ve got them on brothels and I’ve got them on all the other things. They’d be known very quickly.”

Sir Joh stayed on briefly but was forced to resign and Hinze was dumped from Cabinet by is successor, Premier Mike Ahern.

The Crime and Justice Commission (CJC) proposed regulating the industry in the early 1990s but the then-Goss Government instead focused on enforcing existing laws.

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Originally published as Sex work Gold Coast: ‘Partying prostitutes’ blamed for ‘destroying lifestyle’ in canal estates