Why Mackay needs a brothel in the works

Without brothels, the second oldest profession in history leans towards the underworld

There is a market for prostitution but it is a tightly-controlled industry.

WHETHER you morally agree with prostitution or not, the fact remains it is likely the oldest profession in the world behind midwifery.

The first recorded instances of sex for sale dates back to the Babylonian temples where it was an act of religious blessing.

History aside, in ancient or modern-day societies, there will always be a demand and supply for sex.

But Mackay has not had a brothel since Club 7 on Enterprise St shut down five years ago.

And that means, sex work risks treading into illegal territory.

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In Queensland, you can only legally be a prostitute in one of two ways, as the Prostitution Licensing Authority explains.

Firstly, you can work in a licensed brothel where a maximum of eight sex workers can be on the premise at any one time and the client must go to the brothel.

The second option is for the sex worker to become a sole operator.

Either they go to the client or the client goes to them.

But a sole operator prostitute cannot work in conjunction with another sex worker, or a third person, meaning two sex workers cannot work at the same location even on opposing split shifts.

You also cannot run escort agencies, massage parlours or solicit sexual services from the street.

The reason for these rules are simple.

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They aim to stop ‘pimp’ scenarios or sex trafficking from festering.

But in reality, the laws penalise sex workers who do not have access to a brothel.

There are more than five million people in Queensland but only 20 licensed brothels.

But only one, the Northern Belle in Cairns, is outside of the south-east corner.

And so, after two women were fined up to $3000 for illegally providing sexual services from the same premises at Paradise Hotel Mackay this month, was this a case of nowhere else to go?

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