SYDNEY - Residents of the Sydney suburb of Ashfield received an additional delivery in their letterboxes this week - ballot papers on the question of a neighbourhood brothel.
The poll is part of a long-running battle by their council to get an exemption from New South Wales law requiring local authorities to set aside areas for legal brothels.
If residents and ratepayers vote no, as expected, the council will further press its case by taking the results to the state's planning minister. Mayor Mark Bonanno said there was simply nowhere in Ashfield where brothels could operate away from schools, churches and residences.
Legislation legalising brothels was passed in NSW in 1995 in a move to combat drug and health problems associated with the sex industry. The reforms made local councils responsible for granting development approval and for regulating brothels. Councils had to consider the impact on the local environment, appropriate zoning areas, and health and safety standards.
But the debate has moved from the welfare of sex workers to the siting of brothels, and Ashfield is not the only battleground. Others include Pittwater, in Sydney's northern beaches region, where the local council has also argued that it cannot find anywhere appropriate within its boundaries for a red-light district. Farther north, at Lake Macquarie on the NSW central coast, objectors are fighting plans for a 24-hour establishment at Redhead on a vacant industrial site that meets all the guidelines. "Redhead can have a brothel, but not a library," read one sign waved by protesters at a council meeting.
In a twist to the wrangle, one Sydney brothel has fought back by lodging an objection of its own - against plans to build a nearby church. The owners of La Petite Aroma complain that a church just 50m away could affect their trade.
The Sydney-based Sex Workers Outreach Project (Swop) believes giving councils the power to approve brothels was a major flaw in the legislation because it did not give them options. Swop, a NSW Health Department-funded organisation providing health education for sex workers, advised groups in New Zealand such as the Prostitutes Collective on the Prostitution Reform Bill, which has passed its first stage in Parliament.Its manager, Maria McMahon, said legalising brothels had brought better access to health information for sex workers, now covered by occupational health and safety regulations.
- NZPA
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