Thomas, Alina "Advocating for sex work organisations, Tasmania" Scarlet Alliance Public Symposium Brisbane 2008

Historically Tasmania has a heavily criminalised sex industry. And previous to the introduction of the current Sex Industry Offences Act in 2005 “prostitution” was dealt with under the police offences act and included crimes such as “running a bawdy house” and “living off the earnings of prostitution”. Today, brothels remain illegal and street work and even clients of brothels are also criminalised under the current Act. Criminalisation and marginalisation are compounded with Tasmania being the only state in Australia with no history of a state funded sex work project so up until recently there have not been any tailored services for sex workers in Tasmania.