Australia- www.news.com.au- AS A well-known situation comedy the NSW Government is having an identity crisis – its script writers don’t know if they’re writing for Spin City or Sex And The City.
Either way trumpeted “new” laws designed to stamp out illegal brothels in Sydney are a joke. But the laughing soon stops when we consider the potentially lethal risk to prostitutes working without condoms and their clients, as many so-called pleasure parlours remain unhealthy, unhygienic and unregulated.
In June 2007 then Planning Minister Frank Sartor announced the Government was finally getting tough with illegal brothels “to create more consistency in the way we tackle illegal brothels”.
“The changes will help to ease the evidentiary burden on councils when trying to prove a breach has occurred under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act,” Mr Sartor said, with all the fatigue of a former Sydney Mayor who’s been battling illicit sex for years.
Almost two years later the laws have proven to be a colossal sham. Illegal brothels now outnumber licensed premises by a ratio of four to one. They operate next to schools, hire women working on tourist visas and expose staff and clients to death and disease.
When contacted by The Daily Telegraph the office of Mr Sartor’s successor Kristina Keneally was clueless about the impact of the laws.
Every single promise made by Mr Sartor drew a complete blank from Ms Keneally’s team. A spokesman agreed it was completely reasonable to assume the Government would have monitored the enforcement performance of councils since legislation was enacted in 2007.
We wanted to know:
HOW many illegal brothels have been closed by councils since October 2007?
HOW often illegal brothels have been closed within five working days?
HOW many brothels had their gas and electricity disconnected ?
WHETHER courts, empowered by the new laws, had suspended development consent for brothels for up to six months to stop selling or transferring a lease?
HOW many councils had taken advantage of the laws to close brothels on circumstantial evidence?
HOW many repeat offenders have been caught?
HOW often have increased fines applied for repeat offenders?
They were all valid questions given the Government made such a song and dance about the legislation’s announcement but if the vacuum of knowledge in the Planning Minister’s office is not disturbing enough, the blanks we drew from the Attorney-General and the Local Government Minister’s office are even more concerning.
Chris Seage from Adult Business Association has long shared our frustration in seeking straight answers about the dismal failures to deliver on policy. Six months ago Mr Seage wrote to Ms Keneally to see if she would be following up assurances given by Premier Nathan Rees after an illegal brothel was discovered above his electorate office in Toongabbie.
“I note the Premier’s comments where he said, ‘If there are commonsense improvements to the statute to be made then we will look closely at them’,” Mr Seage wrote.
“May I respectfully suggest that you and the Government now turn your attention to implementing corruption commission calls to review the corruption risks of councils regulating brothels, ban advertising by illegal brothels and prevent unsuitable persons operating brothels.”
The Minister never replied to Mr Seage. Maybe she was too busy rehearsing her lines for the Government’s next planning announcement. Apparently the script writers are working on a new hit – Something about monkeys, blind eyes and deaf ears but not much wisdom.