Prostitution and Trafficking

Prostitution and Trafficking

Women’s Forum Australia believes that prostitution and sex trafficking are two of the most serious threats to equality and the rights of women and girls to live lives free of violence in today’s society.

Women’s Forum Australia challenges the rhetoric that legalisation, in its current form, will suppress trafficking and prostitution.

Women’s Forum Australia rejects the notion that prostitution is an act undertaken by two consenting adults in a relationship where the balance of power is shared equally. A survey of prostitutes in Queensland found that 90% of women working in legal brothels entered the industry because they ‘needed the money’ not because they deem it a legitimate and fulfilling form of work.

Women’s Forum Australia advocates measures which target the causes of prostitution and illegal trafficking in women’s rights and girls’ bodies.

WFA Blogs


Latest blogs on prostitution
Latest blogs on trafficking

WFA Published Articles


South Australia must introduce Nordic Model if it wants to reform state's sex industry, Rachael Wong

WFA Submissions


Submission on QLRC Consultation Paper: A framework for a decriminalised sex work industry in Queensland
Statutes Amendment (Repeal of Sex Work Offences) Bill 2020

We Recommend You Read


Prostitution: A problem of equality, dignity and integrity, Tahlia Perry 
Behind the Screen: Online Child Exploitation in Australia, Anti-Slavery Australia
Prostitution Narratives: Stories of Survival in the Sex Trade, Caroline Norma & Melinda Tankard Reist (eds)
The Swedish Law that Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services, Gunilla Eckberg
Abolishing Prostitution: The Swedish Solution, An Interview With Gunilla Eckberg
Making Sex Work: A Failed Experiment With Legalised Prostitution, Mary Lucille Sullivan
Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography, Rebecca Whisnat & Christine Stark