Australia: Bid to decriminalise sex work in South Australia defeated in Parliament

By Casey Briggs

A campaign to decriminalise sex work in South Australia has failed, with the state's Parliament voting against the bill this morning. The House of Assembly voted 24 to 19 to defeat the bill, in a conscience vote of all MPs.

The private member's bill, co-sponsored by the Attorney-General Vickie Chapman and Greens MLC Tammy Franks, had previously passed the Legislative Council. "Absolutely deflated but not defeated," Ms Franks said.

"We have the most archaic laws in the country … It's an abject failure for the Labor Party to say that they represent workers when today, so many Labor-right members in particular voted against workers.

"Decriminalisation means that the laws of the land will apply equally and we'll be able to step in, whether that's a planning code, whether that's a policing requirement, those laws will then apply.

"The Attorney-General was ready to sit down and discuss those, but what they've done today is that they've thrown workers under the bus. Sex workers have been sacrificed for their political games." Read more via ABC