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Key points
- The decriminalisation of sex work on December 1 will result in planning scheme changes where brothels are treated in the same way as other shops home-based sex work is permitted.
- Under existing requirements, brothels must be located 100 metres from residences and 200 metres away from churches, schools and playgrounds.
- Sex workers say the changes will help address discrimination and improve safety in their industry.
- Councils will become responsible for regulating the location of brothels and home-based sex work, a role many municipalities say they’re not equipped for.
Christine McQueen hopes the looming decriminalisation of sex work in Victoria will change people’s attitudes about her work.
“It will mean councils can’t discriminate against me for basic things, which is enormous,” McQueen said.
Sex worker Christine McQueen with her dogs, Chanel and Daddy.Credit: Penny Stephens
Brothels will be treated the same way as other shops, such as hairdressers, and home-based sex work will be permitted under planning scheme changes to take effect from December 1, which stem from a 2019 parliamentary review of laws governing sex work led by then-MP Fiona Patten.
“I want to reside in a state that I am a part of in every way,” said McQueen, who is also a board member of advocacy group Sex Work Law Reform Victoria. “I’m sick of being stigmatised, it’s starting to affect me pretty deeply.”
McQueen said she wanted to work in a legitimate industry in which she was safe and had basic rights.
Dallas Rayne has been a sex worker for 15 years and operates mostly from her home, a practice currently illegal even though it was safer, she said, than a “dingy motel” or the client’s residence.
“You just don’t know what that residence is set up like, they could pretty much do anything,” she said.
“I host a client at my home, I know that my doorbell has a camera. I know that I have my neighbours, I can reach out to them if something should go wrong.”
The industry has not been spared the effects of the cost-of-living crisis: Rayne charges up to $1100 an hour but had to reduce her rates and offer a “Tightarse Tuesday” special of $400 an hour.
“The economy and interest rates have heavily affected our work,” she said. “We are charging less and we are having to take a lot more bookings that we would not normally consider. I, myself, have two mortgages and my clients also have mortgages, they can’t afford luxuries any more.”
Sex workers have backed changes which they say will lessen the stigma and discrimination they experience.Credit: iStock
Rayne said home-based sex work was already occurring, and decriminalising it would make life safer for sex workers.
“If you are a sex worker and you get raped in Victoria, the women won’t speak up because they were doing something wrong,” she said.
Once sex work is decriminalised, councils will become responsible for regulating the location of brothels and home-based sex work.
However, some have already raised concerns about changes that will abolish existing requirements for brothels to be located 100 metres from residences and 200 metres from churches, schools and playgrounds.
Municipal Association of Victoria president David Clark said councils were concerned by the “cavalier and high-handed approach” the state government appeared to be taking with the implementation of the reform.
“Councils, as a proposed key component of the regulatory regime for this reform, are still entirely in the dark as to what role they will play and how they will deliver their responsibilities,” he said.
Clark said it was unclear how councils should deal with concerns raised regarding the safety of children in homes where sex work occurred, what role WorkSafe played and how serious issues relating to people trafficking were resolved.
“Councils are simply not equipped to deal with complex matters of this nature,” he said.
Boroondara, Stonnington and Glen Eira councils have all raised concerns with the state government about what they say will be an adverse impact on the amenity of residential neighbourhoods.
Boroondara Mayor Felicity Sinfield said her council didn’t oppose sex work, but residential zones should remain locations where people could enjoy the peace and quiet of their neighbourhoods without having to worry about what was happening next door or anti-social behaviour.
“The changes also mean that council will be responsible for responding to and managing community concerns with sex-work businesses rather than Victoria Police — another example of the state government shifting another responsibility onto local government,” Sinfield said.
A spokesman for the state government said councils were consulted on the changes, which would ensure sex workers had the same rights, entitlements and protections under law as they would in any other job.
Matthew Roberts, spokesman for advocacy group Sex Work Law Reform Victoria. Credit: Eamon Gallagher
“Consultation has taken place with the sex industry, councils and the Municipal Association of Victoria, about the technical changes required to planning schemes and other regulations,” the spokesman said.
The government said the existing planning requirements were unnecessarily restrictive and had led to poor compliance and the growth of a large, unlicensed sex-work industry in Victoria that neither criminalisation nor licensing had eliminated.
Sex Work Law Reform Victoria spokesman Matthew Roberts said the advocacy group was aware of some councils’ anxieties, but prohibitive planning schemes tended to drive the industry underground and prevented sex workers from reporting violence.
After Boroondara passed a motion for an information campaign about the decriminalisation, Roberts said it was “Melbourne’s number one anti sex-work council”.
“We fear this will be a smear campaign and we are concerned about when that campaign will occur and the anxiety and fearmongering it could create in the community about sex workers,” he said.
“These changes acknowledge that sex work is a reality and part of our society it needs to be regulated like other businesses and when you do that you give sex workers the ability to work legally and report problems to the authorities should they occur.”
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