The Brothels Bill is safely through the NSW Parliament, with the Government claiming that it provides a happy ending to a lot of community tension. The legislation is supposed to make good on one of those woolly election promises by Morris Iemma: to stamp out illegal brothels.

The way that translates into reality is that the larger, licensed "white shoe" brothels can keep on getting bigger and fatter while the little Asian knock shops will be closed down, unless they can keep on bribing local council officials to stay open. Like far too much law-and-order legislation it is a patch-up job, which utterly fails to deal courageously and sensibly with the real issue.

Fortunately, a late amendment will allow women (and a few men), working alone or in pairs from their home, to keep on humpin' and bumpin', at least for now. What happens to these estimated 4000 private workers, or about 40 per cent of the sex trade in the state, will depend on the attitude of local councils under the magnificent local environmental plans of the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor.

The Brothels Bill, which amends the Restricted Premises Act and other laws, is not without its high-handed elements. Local courts can issue orders cutting off the electricity, gas or water to premises deemed to be illegal brothels. Deciding whether premises are being used for sex will not be a difficult task because natural justice requirements need not apply when a court is considering a "brothel closure order".

In making orders for premises not to be used as a brothel, the Land and Environment Court can rely on circumstantial evidence and may make a finding "without any direct evidence".

Presumably this is to protect the morals of council workers who until now had to sacrifice themselves in the cause of tracking down illegal sex operators. However, it does seem a high price to pay to keep a few souls unsullied.

Corruption, real and potential, remains alive. There is an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into whether a local council official at Parramatta was receiving money and sex in return for a bit of protection.

Instead of relying on a complaints mechanism, sex worker advertisements in local newspapers are now frequently used to track down potential brothels, and it is this "self-initiated enforcement" that has the potential to lead to official temptations.

This was all examined by the Sex Services Premises Planning Advisory Panel, which produced a document in 2004 but only released it last year. It would have provided councils a model for ensuring sex premises were operating in a healthy and unobtrusive fashion - but has never been acted upon. In any event those proposals have been overtaken by the Sartor model of local council planning.

But back to the small, independent workers operating out of apartments or the spare room of their houses. Under the Sartor plan, councils were given up to four years to make special provisions to exempt private workers from the underpinning moral requirements of the planning code in residential areas.

There is no way on earth that any council would provide for this sort of latitude. Councils, as we know, are fierce enforcers of rectitude. At the moment about half the private sex operators are in a legal black hole because there are no council rules that limit or restrict the areas in which they can work.

The other half are operating under council rules that restrict the places in which commercial sex may take place, such as certain distances from residences, schools, businesses and so on. Very few comply with these requirements and so, strictly speaking, are illegal.

This will provide further ammunition to the ABA, which is not the Australian Bar Association but the Adult Business Association, although understandably sometimes the two bodies are confused.

The sexy ABA represents the "white shoe" licensed brothels, and its message is pretty clear. It doesn't like independent working girls or boys or small brothels anywhere near their red plush boudoirs. It campaigns to get these "illegal" workers closed down. Competition is bad in the sex game and the ABA will be on the Government's tail for another round of amendments if the councils keep turning a blind eye to the extra-jurisdictional trade.

Already, the ABA has said that to be allowed to advertise sex in the newspapers (predominantly the Murdoch papers) you should be a wholesome, upstanding and, importantly, paid-up member of the association.

Let's hope the Murdoch press ensures that the right of independent workers to advertise will be a vital plank in the "free the media" campaign that has so excited our media barons.

As one of the members of the Scarlet Alliance, representing the independent sex workers, has said: "Just because you're licensed doesn't mean you're not sleazy."

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