It took a long time, but Victorian MP Georgie Purcell speaks openly about her past.
As a former stripper, and now an advocate for sex workers’ rights in Victoria and nationwide, she knows firsthand just how harmful stigmas and stereotypes around sex work can be.
Purcell also knows firsthand the power of normalising the conversation about sex work. And since recent legislation in Belgium granting sex workers greater labour rights came into effect, she hopes it will make a difference in Australia.
“I was absolutely stoked to see the news coming out of Belgium,” Purcell told Women’s Agenda.
“I think it’s a really good example of how, when we normalise sex work and treat is as any other job, we can make progress.”
Legal experts and advocates for sex work say that Belgium has set a strong standard for other countries to follow in terms of employment rights.
But what is holding progress back the most around the world – especially in Australia – is discrimination against sex workers. While sex work has been decriminalised in most states and territories in Australia, the “hangover” of criminalisation means sex workers continue to be discriminated against and treated differently to any other worker in any other industry.
“We don’t criticise other people who use their bodies for labour, such as construction workers or tradies, and that’s exactly what sex workers are doing,” Purcell says.
“And they deserve to have the same rights as any other worker around the country.”
What happened in Belgium?
On Sunday, new laws came into effect that will grant sex workers in Belgium a raft of labour rights they previously were not entitled to.
Sex work in Belgium has been legal since it was decriminalised in 2022, but employees in the industry lacked several labour rights that other industries have access to.
Under the new legislation, sex workers will be eligible to sign formal employment contracts, which will give them access to benefits such as health insurance, paid leave, maternity benefits, unemployment support and pensions.
There will also be stricter rules for employers in the industry to follow, including working hours, pay and implementing safety measures like clean linens, condoms, hygiene products and emergency buttons in workspaces.
Isabelle Jaramillo is the coordinator of Espace P and was heavily involved in the advocacy and drafting of the laws. Speaking to the ABC, she described the legislation as an “incredible step forward”.
“It means their profession can finally be recognised as legitimate by the Belgian state,” Jaramillo said.
“From the employer’s perspective, this will also be a revolution. They’ll have to apply for a state authorisation to hire sex workers.
“Under the previous legislation, hiring someone for sex work automatically made you a pimp, even if the arrangement was consensual. Now, they’ll have to apply for state authorisation to hire employees.”
Emily Smith is a Senior Lawyer at Southside Justice, a free legal service for people on low incomes in Melbourne’s south. As far as she knows, the legislation in Belgium confers “unprecedented workplace and social protections to sex workers”.
But how effective this legislation will be in breaking down stigmas and stereotypes depends on how the law is socialised and enforced.
“Though, Belgium is setting a great example of sex work being treated like any other industry when it comes to worker entitlements and protections,” Smith says.
What about in Australia?
Sex work has been decriminalised in NSW, the Northern Territory, Victoria and Queensland. In the ACT, sex work is legal but regulated, while in Western Australia and Tasmania, it is partially criminalised. Sex work is fully criminalised in South Australia.
Most sex workers in Australia work as sole traders or as independent contractors – similar to professions like GPs and personal trainers. As Mish Pony, the CEO of Scarlet Alliance (the Australian Sex Workers Association) explains, legislation mirroring Belgium’s new laws wouldn’t necessarily translate to the Australian sex work context.
“Independent contractors in Australia generally don’t have access to sick leave, annual leave, maternity leave, unfair dismissal,” Pony says, “but they generally still have access to work health and safety protections and some industrial protections.
“There have been recent reforms that allow independent contractors to take unfair contract terms to the Fair Work Commission which is a good step to improving the rights of independent contractors.”
But these steps, while important and progressive, don’t mark the end of the line for progress. Emily Smith from Southside Justice said there is still an “imbalance of power” between sex service premises owners/operators/managers and individual sex workers.
“Sex workers are rarely employees, and instead told they are independent contractors for which no employee entitlements or protections are afforded,” Smith said.
“Sham contracting can be challenged in a federal court, but sex workers need access to timely legal assistance in order to do so.”
Meanwhile, Georgie Purcell MP in the Victorian parliament, alongside other crossbenchers and independents, is still fighting for better rights and working conditions for sex workers.
Despite Victoria decriminalising sex work in 2022, Purcell says the rollout of this has been limited, with many sex workers finding themselves with “no where to turn” if they feel unsafe at work, or unsure of their working rights.
“Decriminalisation is simply not enough,” Purcell says.
“It’s a good starting point, and we’ve done that here in Victoria, but for the most part, it can still be an insecure job, and it can be an unsafe job.
“I think any change in legislation in the space of sex work that improves their safety and their right to work is a really good thing, because it not only protects them, but it introduces a conversation into the pubic domain, and we know that the more this is spoken about, the more normalised it is.
“I’m really frustrated by the conversation in the Victorian parliament, because it seems for many politicians, this conversation either makes them uncomfortable or they’re opposed to it.”
Emily Smith from Southside Justice describes this opposition and discomfort around the sex work industry as a “hangover” from criminalisation, which was overturned in Victoria only in the last couple of years.
“Sex workers in Victoria continue to experience a hangover from criminalisation of stigma, prejudice and discrimination in the community and in public services preventing full and safe accessibility,” Smith said.
‘Sex workers are ordinary people’
In October this year, a sex worker in Melbourne was evicted from her home after a flyer alerting neighbours of her line of work resulted in a complaint to the council, a subsequent investigation, and a termination of her rental agreement with her landlord.
It’s not just housing insecurity sex workers face – in many cases, their lives are at risk. Yet stigma and stereotypes result in serious injustice for women killed in the sex work industry.
Last month, 24-year-old Xiaozheng Lin struck a deal to plead guilty to two charges of manslaughter, just one month before he was supposed to face a double-murder trial. He is charged with the deaths of Yuqi Luo, 31, and Hyun Sook Jeon, 51 – two sex workers he killed within days of one another.
Purcell says cases like these serve not just as a “warning sign” about the dangers of stigmas, but as “an indication that we can and must do better”.
“By introducing regular working rights and regular working conditions that most other workers already have access to, it helps to show sex work for what it really is – it’s like any other job,” Purcell says.
“Sex workers are just ordinary people. Someone you know and someone you love is or was a sex worker.”