Police back brothels In Western Australia


(Note each Australian State has own laws which vary but private prostitution is legal in all the States but laws regarding brothels vary. Currently in the state of Western Australia only one person brothels are legal but that may be changing):

August 13, 2007
POLICE have welcomed proposals to decriminalise and regulate WA brothels, in a move due to be debated in State Parliament in the next month. WA Attorney-General Jim McGinty will introduce legislation into State Parliament when it resumes next week which would allow brothels to operate legally. Prostitution is not prohibited in WA but it is illegal to manage a brothel and live off the earnings of prostitution. The laws are archaic and need to be changed, Mr McGinty said. "Prostitution is an unfortunate fact of life,'' Mr McGinty said.

"The new laws which we will be introducing to parliament in the next month will see brothels regularised, to the extent that we accept the reality that they are there and what we want to do is give local government the power to regulate where they are located and how they operate. "We want to give the police the power to properly control activities that might be crime-related but most importantly we don't want the absurd situation of the police being required to turn a blind eye to any illegal activity.

Organised Crime Detective Superintendent Kim Porter said the advent of new prostitution laws would be welcomed.

Readers Comments
Operating brothels have been a part of the City of kalgoorlie-boulder all my life. Not sure why McGinty says its "unfortunate fact of life" - without you guys they would not operate........Mr Ostrich once more! Most Ladies have no objection. In my opinion, a well overdue piece of legislation
Posted by: Judy Simpson of WA

Prostitution should not be a criminal offence, it is a form of employment for women who wants to work at this trade, it will reduce crime and allow more police officers to be free to fight real crime. In suburbs a brothel should be established in the industrial area away from children and people wanting to use these facillities will not disturb the wider community

This should of been done a long time ago. As long as it's all behind closed doors then it's not hurting anybody!
Source: http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22234665-2761,00.html

Back to the Sexwork Main Menu