NSW SEX WORKER RED UMBRELLA PROTEST 7 Sept 2012

"This Local Council election is crucial to sex worker rights in NSW. Councillors running on a 'ban brothels' platform are working against the best interests of sex workers, and are shirking their responsibility to community based HIV responses and human rights," Elena Jeffreys said on behalf of Scarlet Alliance today.

WHAT: Sex Worker Red Umbrella Protest WHERE: NSW PARLIAMENT HOUSE WHEN : this FRIDAY 07 Sept at 12NOON WHY : Local Council Election Crucial To Sex Workers

Decriminalisation is under under threat.

UN recommendations for sex workers snubbed by local council candidates.

"Sex worker human rights & dignity in NSW is at crunch point with tomorrow's local council election," said Scarlet Alliance representative Elena Jeffreys.

NSW Guidelines are in place which are worlds best, but only if Local Councillors step up and apply them. For years Planning Staff at a Local Council level have tried to implement good policy. They have faced hostile Councillors determined to outlaw sex workers in residential and commercial areas, and in some cases, trying to ban sex work all together.

Many Local Councillors in NSW believe it is their role to ban sex work. This, however, is not in the spirit of the 1996 legislation that finally fully decriminalised sex work across the whole state.

"It's overdue that Councils stopped blocking brothel DA's," Elena Jeffreys concluded today. "Private workers in NSW are permitted to work from Residential areas but only if Local Councils proactively make such allowance in their Local Environment Plan. Local Councils need to step up."