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Self Heath For Queensland Workers In The Sex Industry (SQWISI) voluntarily wound down the
organisation last week. The SQWISI Board has appointed an Administrative
Committee to oversee the cleaning out of all 4 offices. The website simply states "All
direct services have now ceased." As many sex workers are already aware, the entire staff of SQWISI was sacked by the
SQWISI Board late last year. This followed an 18 month internal industrial dispute
that involved both staff-staff conflicts and staff-board conflicts. The details of these
conflicts are confidential and not known to Scarlet Alliance. During the 18 month
dispute the Board ran an internal investigation, the results of which were never
released to the SQWISI staff and also never seen by Scarlet Alliance. The internal
investigation allegedly recommended an organisational review, which was
commissioned last October and ended with the sacking of all the staff. The results and
recommendations of the commissioned review were never released to the SQWISI
staff or Scarlet Alliance. 2 regional offices, Townsville and Cairns, were kept open
after the review, however they have closed now as well.
The 5th National Strategy on HIV/AIDS, the National
STI Strategy, and the
correlating Queensland Strategies all refer to the
importance of ongoing peer education in Queensland, the involvement of affected
communities in leading, running and evaluating services, and the centrality of strong
community organisations in the response to HIV and STI's. Queensland Health have
confirmed their commitment to these principles in recent correspondence to Scarlet
Alliance. A review of services for Queensland sex workers will be conducted in
coming months, followed by a tender process for sex worker services later in the year.
SQWISI was one of the first incorporated sex worker organisations in Australia and a
founding member of Scarlet Alliance, playing an important role in the establishment
of the Australian sex worker rights movement. Unfortunately, recent years
saw SQWISI move away from a peer education and participation model, leading
to less sex worker input and control over the organisation and eventually resulting in
SQWISI withdrawing their membership to Scarlet Alliance. The SQWISI experience
serves as a potent reminder to all of us that sex worker leadership and participation is
imperative to the success, sustainability and accountability of our sex worker
organisations to the sex worker community.
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Scarlet Alliance "Cover Letter, Queensland Submission to SWAN Review" May 2008