By Stephanie Bastiaan
A renewed push to decriminalise prostitution in South Australia is underway after the Legislative Council voted in November to refer the issue to the South Australian Law Reform Institute (SALRI), the state’s research body on legal and policy matters.
The motion, moved by former Greens MLC Tammy Franks, calls on SALRI to examine the impact of ongoing criminalisation and to consider legislative options for the decriminalisation of so-called “adult consensual sex work” in South Australia. The referral follows Franks’ long-running efforts to change the state’s prostitution laws, including a Bill earlier this year that ultimately failed to pass and would have permitted children as young as 18 months to be present on brothel premises.
The issue with the framing of this motion is that instead of reporting on what impact decriminalisation will have on women and our society, it starts with a predetermined conclusion that criminalisation of prostitution is harmful, and requests SALRI to provide recommendations for legislative reforms to decriminalise it.
Concerningly, South Australia’s Deputy Leader and Attorney General, Kyam Maher, backed the motion declaring in his speech that reform is “inevitable” and indicating the Labor government’s support for decriminalisation. Both Fair Go for Australia Party MLC Sarah Game and Labor MLC Clare Scriven spoke against the motion.
Opposition Leader in the Legislative Council, Nicola Centofanti, moved an amendment to broaden the scope of the review to not only look at the impact of decriminalisation but to examine all legislative models including the Equality (Nordic) Model. Disappointingly, this motion was defeated by one vote, including the Attorney General’s.
The reality is that the sex industry is synonymous with systemic trauma, abuse, physical and sexual violence, murder, and exploitation. This is acknowledged by advocacy groups for workers in the trade, such as the Scarlett Alliance and Vixen Collective.
Only the Equality Model recognises prostitution as a form of violence against women and incompatible with equality.
Proponents for decriminalisation often claim that the Equality Model would push prostitution underground and leave those in the industry less protected. However, examining other jurisdictions that have embraced decriminalised or so-called ‘regulated’ models of prostitution shows that it is in fact the legalisation and normalisation of the sex trade that fuels demand and enables the expansion of criminal activity, including human trafficking, drug distribution and money laundering.
While New South Wales, Victoria the Northern Territory and Queensland have moved to fully decriminalise prostitution, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory operate under a regulated legislative framework, one broadly similar to Victoria’s former model prior to 2022. To date, prostitution remains predominantly criminalised in both South Australia and Western Australia, where while the act of selling sex itself isn’t illegal, activities like pimping, keeping a brothel and street solicitation are.
It is important to distinguish between these approaches. Under a regulated model, prostitution is legal but subject to industry-specific controls, such as limits on where prostitution can occur, licensing requirements, and restrictions on certain practices. Under a decriminalised model, prostitution is treated as an ordinary commercial activity, governed primarily by standard business and planning laws, with only limited criminal prohibitions remaining, such as those relating to coercion or exploitation.
Proponents often portray these models as fundamentally different. In practice, however, both have failed to prevent exploitation and criminal infiltration of the sex industry. The evidence out of New South Wales and Victoria in particular provide a clear and cautionary case study.
New South Wales has operated under a decriminalised and largely deregulated regime since 1995. Victoria, meanwhile, ran a regulated system from 1994 before shifting to full decriminalisation in 2022. Despite their different legislative frameworks, both states have seen the expansion of organised crime, widespread illegal operations, and systemic harm to women.
A 2015 New South Wales Parliamentary Inquiry found that sexual servitude had increased under the decriminalised model and that a significant number of brothels were operating unlawfully. Responsibility for oversight fell largely to local councils, which the inquiry found were ill-equipped to investigate or prosecute serious criminal activity. As a result, organised crime groups were able to operate with little scrutiny.
The inquiry also documented serious harms to women in prostitution, particularly migrant women on temporary visas with limited English. Evidence showed women being compelled to work excessive hours under threat or pressure, with large portions of their earnings deducted for trivial or fabricated breaches. Women working both in brothels and on the street were found to experience high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, substance dependence and psychological distress.
Victoria’s experience mirrors these failures. In 2010, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into human trafficking acknowledged the strong and direct link between the sex industry and forced sexual servitude. Yet more than a decade later, the state moved to full decriminalisation following a review that focused narrowly on existing laws rather than the industry itself. This occurred despite years of investigative journalism exposing ongoing trafficking, drug offences and money laundering within Victoria’s sex trade.
Estimates suggest that for every 100 legal brothels, more than 400 illegal brothels continue to operate in Victoria. Notably, the 2022 inquiry that paved the way for decriminalisation was chaired by former MP Fiona Patten, a self-described former sex worker and founder of the Eros Association – Australia’s peak adult industry lobby group. A genuinely independent and comprehensive inquiry would almost certainly have produced findings similar to those uncovered in New South Wales.
What emerges clearly from these jurisdictions is that any legal framework that legitimises prostitution, whether regulated or decriminalised, drives demand. That demand is routinely met through human trafficking and creates fertile ground for organised crime to operate through brothels, massage parlours and escort agencies.
The Australian Federal Police has warned that Australia is both a destination and source country for human trafficking, estimating that for every identified victim, as many as four remain undetected. These realities cannot be separated from the way prostitution is legalised and normalised under current reform models.
There is an election in three months. South Australians need to be aware that should Labor throw its support behind legislative reform, it will pass, as Labor MP’s rarely have a conscience vote on policy due to the Australian Labor Party’s strict rules of voting for the Party’s position. Maher’s refusal to support a broad, evidence-based review that examines alternatives to decriminalisation of prostitution indicates that legislative reform under a South Australian Labor government will be decriminalisation.
There can be no equality for women in a society that accepts their bodies bought and sold for profit. The sex trade must be abolished, not legitimised.
The Equality Model is the only approach that confronts prostitution for what it is, an inherently abusive system sustained by demand and social tolerance - and seeks to end it by targeting buyers and traffickers while providing women genuine exit pathways out of the industry.
Stephanie Bastiaan is Head of Advocacy at Women’s Forum Australia
Women’s Forum Australia is an independent think tank that undertakes research, education and public policy advocacy on issues affecting women and girls, with a particular focus on addressing behaviours and practices that are harmful and abusive to them. We are a non-partisan, non-religious, tax-deductible charity. We do not receive any government funding and rely solely on donations to make an impact. Support our work today.
| I’ll stand with women ▷ |