On Thursday night, the Victorian parliament passed laws to decriminalise sex work in the state, with the upper house voting 24-10 in favour of the bill. There were cheers and applause in the chamber as the vote was read out. Victoria is now the third jurisdiction in Australia to decriminalise sex work.
Melissa Horne MP, Victorian Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, shares this open letter in the wake of the historic day.
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For far too long, sex work has been unfairly stigmatised by archaic rules and regulations that have harmed countless workers.
Yesterday we changed all that, when the Victorian Parliament passed laws to decriminalise sex work.
That means that soon in Victoria, sex workers will be given the same protections as every other worker.
Under these important reforms, sex workers can get the support they deserve from healthcare providers, the justice system, or other government services.
They will soon have the same rights, access to entitlements, and protections under law as they would in any other job.
These are basic human liberties that shouldn’t be withheld simply because someone works in the sex work industry.
Prior to these new laws coming into effect, sex work was regulated under a legalised model in Victoria which had not been updated for close to three decades – it was outdated and extremely difficult to navigate.
At the heart of this reform is a simple but core value that the Andrews Labor Government holds dear – every Victorian worker deserves the same rights when they go to work.
Through lengthy consultations, sex workers told us that their current working conditions were unsafe across both the licensed and unlicensed sectors, including experiences of violence in the workplace, deterrents to reporting violence, and a lack of compliance with safe-sex measures.
We also looked to New Zealand, where sex work is already decriminalised. Their experience showed that sex workers experience a lower risk to violence and more confidence in reporting issues to the police.
I would like to thank each and every person who told their story about how they were excluded from basic protections that are afforded to every other worker.
Sex workers deserve the independence to make free, fair and safe choices about their life and participation in a legal industry – which is why we’ve decriminalised sex work in Victoria.
The changes will ensure that sex work is safe work and treated like any other career. It will also maximise sex workers’ safety, health, and human rights.
It’s the right thing to do. The fair thing to do. Feeling safe at work, regardless of your profession, is a non-negotiable human right and one we will continue to fight for on behalf of every worker in Victoria, every day.