Regarding your stories on the sex industry (23/01/07), the Courier is guilty of a terrible lack of integrity. Investigative reporting is not simply regurgitating the claims of the so-called “legal” sex industry, who have their own agenda.

The nature of that agenda is clear to anyone with much knowledge of the industry. It is an agenda of owner/managers of brothels, and an attempt to control sex workers. It is an agenda of a few people with money and power enough to get licenses in a restrictive environment, an agenda that seeks to make certain no-one can work unless they get their rake-off of profit.

There is a saying, “No bad whores, just bad laws”. This is an example. The difference between “legal” and “illegal” is an artefact of law, one that tries to entrench control in a few hands. This negates the benefits legalisation has on the industry. It is the problem with “regulated legalisation” instead of simple decriminalisation.

What is needed is not more control, which means more pressure on sex workers who do not want to work for a few big owners. What is needed is a structure that lets workers work for themselves, individually or collectively, and establishes basic rights for occupational health and safety, and for raising grievances regarding abuse without making ourselves targets.

Danu River