Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Monday, October 22, 2007
The Victorian Disaster
Speech given by Rev Peter Abetz to the Rally at Parliament House Perth on Wednesday 17th October 2007
I lived in Victoria in the 1980s
Until 1984 the Victorian police and govt were turning a blind eye to the sex industry. The police pretended it did not exist. Under that system we had 50 brothels and escort agencies operating.
Due to complaints about street walkers, the Victorian Govt legalized prostitution on the grounds that it could clean up the sex industry.
Let me tell you what happened
Within a few months of prostitution being legalised, there were 3 in your face legal brothels in our suburb, and at least 2 illegal ones, trading much more obviously than the single illegal one had ever done before.
Some years after legalizing and supposedly regulating prostitution, there were over 450 registered brothels and escort agencies, and over 1,100 licensed single operator prostitutes!
And that is only the legal industry. The police admit that the illegal industry in Victoria is at least twice the size of the legal one. So cleaning up the sex industry led to a growth from 50 to over 1200 brothels and escort agencies. That is a 24 fold increase! And that does not include the single operator prostitutes. Mr Mc Ginty, we don’t want that disaster to befall our state!
Organised crime become far more involved, because brothels became safe havens for drug dealing, because police had no reason to visit brothels, since they were now legitimate businesses.
Child prostitution increased as the illegal brothels tried to gain a competitive advantage over the legal ones, by providing services these could not provide.
Let me tell you: NOT one of the stated aims of the legalising of prostitution has been achieved in Victoria.
By 1994 things had gotten so out of hand, the Kennett Liberal Govt tried to fix the problems by rewriting the act.
But it has not made any difference. The sex industry is totally out of control in Victoria. The Victorian Attorney General in 1999 admitted that the legalisation of prostitution had been a miserable failure.
What about the Dutch model:
In 2000 I was in the Netherlands, and I spent two nights accompanying a vice squad police officer in the city of Utrecht, and saw the workings of their decriminalized industry. It is not a pretty picture. Don’t let anyone fool you. It is a riddled with drugs and broken women.
And to keep it within its legal limits in that city the police said it takes 2 full time police officers for every 50 registered prostitutes – anything less results in organized crime moving in.
We don’t have enough police officers to investigate house burglaries, let alone police the sex industry.
I challenge Mr McGinty to tell us of one country where legalizing prostitution has resulted in a reduction in the sex industry.
He can not give an example because there isn’t one on the face of the earth. What makes him think that WA is so unique that legalizing wont have the same effect here as it has had in every other country where it has been done?
Legalising always results in a two tiered sex industry.
An in your face legal industry
And a much expanded illegal industry.
The bill before our parliament will do absolutely nothing to reduce the damage being caused to women and children by prostitution.
The civilized world has long recognised that prostitution is not a legitimate industry.
The most effective legislation for reducing prostitution and the damage it does to women and children, is the Swedish legislation.
I call on Mr McGinty to listen to the people of WA, and abandon the Prostitution Amendment Bill. And if he wont, I call on the Greens (Giz Watson) to use their balance of power in the upper house to force this govt to abandon it, and force the Govt to implement a version of the Swedish model, and give genuine protection to the women and children of WA.
Further comments: Phone Peter Abetz on 0409 076 155
Email pabetz@crca.org.au
UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of others.
requires signatory states to enact laws which punish any person who procures, entices or leads away , for the purposes of prostitution another person, even with the consent of that person.
It goes on to say that laws must be enacted which punish any person who knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or part thereof for the purpose of the prostitution of others.
and the UN Discrimination Convention
UN Discrimination Convention)Article 6:
calls on governments to : suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.
And Australia is a signatory of both conventions.
I lived in Victoria in the 1980s
Until 1984 the Victorian police and govt were turning a blind eye to the sex industry. The police pretended it did not exist. Under that system we had 50 brothels and escort agencies operating.
Due to complaints about street walkers, the Victorian Govt legalized prostitution on the grounds that it could clean up the sex industry.
Let me tell you what happened
Within a few months of prostitution being legalised, there were 3 in your face legal brothels in our suburb, and at least 2 illegal ones, trading much more obviously than the single illegal one had ever done before.
Some years after legalizing and supposedly regulating prostitution, there were over 450 registered brothels and escort agencies, and over 1,100 licensed single operator prostitutes!
And that is only the legal industry. The police admit that the illegal industry in Victoria is at least twice the size of the legal one. So cleaning up the sex industry led to a growth from 50 to over 1200 brothels and escort agencies. That is a 24 fold increase! And that does not include the single operator prostitutes. Mr Mc Ginty, we don’t want that disaster to befall our state!
Organised crime become far more involved, because brothels became safe havens for drug dealing, because police had no reason to visit brothels, since they were now legitimate businesses.
Child prostitution increased as the illegal brothels tried to gain a competitive advantage over the legal ones, by providing services these could not provide.
Let me tell you: NOT one of the stated aims of the legalising of prostitution has been achieved in Victoria.
By 1994 things had gotten so out of hand, the Kennett Liberal Govt tried to fix the problems by rewriting the act.
But it has not made any difference. The sex industry is totally out of control in Victoria. The Victorian Attorney General in 1999 admitted that the legalisation of prostitution had been a miserable failure.
What about the Dutch model:
In 2000 I was in the Netherlands, and I spent two nights accompanying a vice squad police officer in the city of Utrecht, and saw the workings of their decriminalized industry. It is not a pretty picture. Don’t let anyone fool you. It is a riddled with drugs and broken women.
And to keep it within its legal limits in that city the police said it takes 2 full time police officers for every 50 registered prostitutes – anything less results in organized crime moving in.
We don’t have enough police officers to investigate house burglaries, let alone police the sex industry.
I challenge Mr McGinty to tell us of one country where legalizing prostitution has resulted in a reduction in the sex industry.
He can not give an example because there isn’t one on the face of the earth. What makes him think that WA is so unique that legalizing wont have the same effect here as it has had in every other country where it has been done?
Legalising always results in a two tiered sex industry.
An in your face legal industry
And a much expanded illegal industry.
The bill before our parliament will do absolutely nothing to reduce the damage being caused to women and children by prostitution.
The civilized world has long recognised that prostitution is not a legitimate industry.
The most effective legislation for reducing prostitution and the damage it does to women and children, is the Swedish legislation.
I call on Mr McGinty to listen to the people of WA, and abandon the Prostitution Amendment Bill. And if he wont, I call on the Greens (Giz Watson) to use their balance of power in the upper house to force this govt to abandon it, and force the Govt to implement a version of the Swedish model, and give genuine protection to the women and children of WA.
Further comments: Phone Peter Abetz on 0409 076 155
Email pabetz@crca.org.au
UN Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of others.
requires signatory states to enact laws which punish any person who procures, entices or leads away , for the purposes of prostitution another person, even with the consent of that person.
It goes on to say that laws must be enacted which punish any person who knowingly lets or rents a building or other place or part thereof for the purpose of the prostitution of others.
and the UN Discrimination Convention
UN Discrimination Convention)Article 6:
calls on governments to : suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.
And Australia is a signatory of both conventions.
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