Federal Sex servitude offences in Australia single out sex work as an occupation where migrant women are sexually exploited.

Not just in Australia but internationally an abolitionist approach in relation to sex work has been adopted by many anti-trafficking lobby groups. These groups believe (and lobby government) that for trafficking in women and children to be addressed, all sex work must be totally eradicated. Scarlet Alliance oppose the abolitionist lobby and propose that sex worker rights must be incorporated into legislation on a Federal level to empower migrant workers in Australia, not push them underground.

It was reported in a May 2004 Lateline interview that Project Respect, a Victorian NGO, had called for the re-criminalisation of the sex industry as a way of addressing what the Government refers to as the trafficking of women for the purpose of sexual servitude. These and other anti-sex work views have had a harmful impact on sex workers in Australia. However the anti-sex work lobby has been increasingly using the issue of trafficking to hide their broader agenda of making all sex work illegal.

The re-criminalisation of the Australian sex industry will only serve to worsen the conditions for the approx. 20,000 Australian women, men and transgender sex workers. It will mean the industry will go "underground" to avoid this excessive level of police and immigration attention and will not assist victims of slavery.

Australian sex industry premises have been targetted by on-going raids by DIMIA and AFP over the last couple of years. The people picked up in these raids have not been "sex slaves". The majority of people detected in these raids have been deported. New laws that allow for sex workers to access visas if they give evidence were passed in 2005. However for the majority of migrant sex workers going to court against their bosses is not an option.

Migrant sex workers deserve labor rights, not simply the right to testify against their boss AFTER experiencing exploitation. If recognised as workers, migrant sex workers would have access to civil means of justice, including industrial protections afforded to all other workers in Australia.

Sex Slavery and Anti-Trafficking Laws, Criminal Code S270 and S271

Definition of slavery: the condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised, including where such a condition results from a debt or contract made by the person.

Definition of sexual servitude: the condition of a person who provides sexual services and who, because of the use of force or threats is not free to cease providing sexual services; or is not free to leave the place or area where the person provides sexual services.

Trafficking in persons: the person that organises or facilitates the entry or proposed entry, or the receipt, of another person into Australia; and uses force or threats or deception; and that use of force or threats or deception results in the first person obtaining the other person’s compliance in respect of that entry or proposed entry or in respect of that receipt OR is reckless as to whether the other person will be exploited, either by the first person or another, after that entry or receipt, is guilty of an offence.

Link for a full transcript of the trafficking and slavery laws in Australia

New Federal Laws 2004/5

The Australian Parliament passed new laws governing "trafficking" and subsequently migrant sex workers in Australia, in July 2005. The laws came into effect in December 2005, and some of the first charges under these laws have already taken place. The laws arose after an inquiry (see below) and submission process. Download Bill

As the laws were debated and passed we followed the issue and all of the major players. Link to more information

Scarlet Alliance wrote a submission about the proposed federal laws. Download Submission

Australian Inquiry 2003/4

In 2003 the Parliamentary Joint Inquiry into the ACC and "trafficking in women for the purposes of sexual servitude" invited public submissions.

You can view submissions on the Australian Parliament site. View

Scarlet Alliance produced a submission which was endorsed by NSWP (Network of sex worker projects) and APNSW (Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers. view Scarlet Alliance was subsequently invited to give evidence at the face-to-face Sydney panel of senators, recorded in Hansard,go to link

Go to Scarlet Alliance Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Inquiry into the ACC and "trafficking in women for the purposes of sexual servitude".

A report was released the the Joint Inquiry committee in July 2004 View

"Sex Slavery" Laws 1999/2000

Briefing Paper CHAPTER 9; OFFENCES AGAINST HUMANITY; ‘SLAVERY’ Scarlet Alliance Addressed to the Standing Committee of the Attorneys-General (all State and Federal Attorney General’s) regarding the proposed changes (now law) to Australia’s treatment of people who migrate to Australia for sex work. Scarlet Alliance argues strongly that migrant workers in Australia need legitimisation, not criminalisation. “The most important support that the Australian Government could provide for these workers is to ratify the UN International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families (the ‘Migrant Workers Convention’).”

Second Reading Speech The Criminal Code Amendment (Slavery and Sexual Servitude) Bill 1999 Mrs Stone member for Murray moves that the Bill be read a Second Time. In the second reading speech the Liberals describe how this Bill will ensure Australia’s international obligations are fulfilled, and how the Bill was supported by all state Attorney Generals. (ie State Labor Governments supported the Bill also).

Related articles

Loose Women or Lost Women by Jo Doezema view

Who gets to choose? by Jo Doezema view

Updated 10 July 2008