Perhaps someone should tell Mr. Iemma that his government decriminalized the sex industry in 1995 due to profound corruption and concerns for the health and safety of sex workers and their clients identified by the Woods Inquiry in the mid 1990s. They then handed regulatory response to local councils who are yet to fully recognise their responsibilities as regulators applying fair and equal planning controls as they would any other commercial use of land.

I am one of 10,000 plus people who work in the sex industry and along with my colleagues working in sex services premises scattered throughout NSW we contribute to our communities, vote and pay tax just like anybody else. Similary, do our clients who contribute to some 50,000 individual incidents of service per day - that's a lot of voters who I'm sure are equally appauled at having this industry described as a "filthy trade." Our clients like ourselves are just ordinary citizens who come from all socio-econimic and cultural backgrounds. Some of our clients having disabilities, being widowed, lonely or simply unable for a variety of reasons to form traditional relationships should not be degraded just because they are lonely, disbled or need company of people like myself and my colleagues who don't judge or discriminate.

Mistress Deborah