As prostitution is a somewhat more venerated profession than politics it is only a rumour that Mistress Lux, an "Australian dominatrix" (yes an actual Aussie) is standing for PUP in Victoria. http://youtu.be/z3uX58tQ7mQ

Another article about sex work with significant misinformation.

The New Zealand experience demonstrates that decriminalisation and actively working to reduce stigma does provide better outcomes. Indeed, there have been cases of a brothel sex worker successfully suing the brothel owner for sexual harassment, the police forcing a non-paying client to withdraw money from their account following a complaint, and violent clients successfully being charged with assault.

While there has been little work to reduce stigma in Australia, similar positive work by police can be seen in the ACT and NSW. Indeed, sex work was decriminalised in NSW because of the heavy police corruption that existed there previously.

Meanwhile in Sweden, the one year anniversary of a sex worker's death facilitated by the Swedish government has just passed. Petite Jasmine was murdered by an abusive ex-spouse on the 13th of July 2013. Until the man started abusing social workers involved in the case, he was able to take full advantage of the Swedish government's hatred of sex work to destroy a sex worker's life, including preventing her from seeing her children and limiting her options further.

As to Norway, the 2012 report referred to is questionable in it's ability to claim a reduction in violence:
http://feministire.com/2012/07/01/the-oslo-report-on-violence-against-sex-workers/

This is not to say that violence (whether towards women or men) remains a problem, nor that it is more likely when there are two people in close, intimate contact. This must be about harm reduction and sunlight being the best disinfectant. Any form of criminalisation, will only guarantee a larger proportion of people prepared to break the law in the client pool. That is inherently more dangerous.

Hi SilverInCanberra

Yours is one of the better comments on OLO that I've read in some time.

Any connection to http://www.eros.org.au/ ?

Planta

It's also worth noting that the World Health Organisation and the medical journal Lancet have both recently said they support decriminalisation because of the health benefits to sex workers and their clients (in both cases particularly around STIs including HIV).

plantagenet:

Just saw your comment after I hit send on my follow up. No, I have no relation to Eros, although I am a member of the Australian Sex Party (which does). I'm just a well read layman on this topic, and get annoyed by articles of this kind. Moralising behind a veil of "freedom of speech" isn't a good argument. Sex worker screening mechanisms are important, and it does seem that Brady abused access to such facilities in order to write this play. What's done is done, and I don't necessarily agree that shutting down the play is the best response, but that's a different argument to whether it should ever have come into existence in the way it did.

I'll readily agree that there are unsavoury aspects to sex work, (the punter and online review culture is tacky and often nasty), but I don't think sex workers themselves are helped by any form of criminalisation. Certainly if you want less people to be in the industry, attacking poverty and treating drugs as a health issue are the best ways to ensure only those who genuinely want to be there are. I also think that physical intimacy is something that all humans should be able to experience, but either through disability or life circumstance, some people just don't get the opportunity. That there are people who genuinely exist in both states means there is a natural supply / demand situation that will always exist. Money can be a corrupting influence in all trade situations, but it is necessary to live in our society.

There isn't a "Nordic" model as such, each of the countries that have implemented a buyer only ban have different systems. None have been able to demonstrate significant benefits, and all are based on the paternalistic (and often misogynistic) idea that people who choose sex work are unable to make their own choices about their own bodies. May as well make abortion illegal as well, if you're going to use that argument.

the reducing the stigma mantra. Yep everyone agrees but no one wants their wife or daughter selling and having her body abused to support drug habits. Maybe those making such profits would like whoring oneself put on the schools curriculim. I can imagine mums and dads telling their ten year old daughters what a great living can be made. Don't worry that you will probably want to top yourself by the time you are wrung out at 21.