POLICE have welcomed proposals to decriminalise and regulate WA brothels, in a move due to be debated in State Parliament in the next month.

WA Attorney-General Jim McGinty will introduce legislation into State Parliament when it resumes next week which would allow brothels to operate legally.

Prostitution is not prohibited in WA but it is illegal to manage a brothel and live off the earnings of prostitution.

The laws are archaic and need to be changed, Mr McGinty said.

"Prostitution is an unfortunate fact of life,'' Mr McGinty said.

"The new laws which we will be introducing to parliament in the next month will see brothels regularised, to the extent that we accept the reality that they are there and what we want to do is give local government the power to regulate where they are located and how they operate.

"We want to give the police the power to properly control activities that might be crime-related but most importantly we don't want the absurd situation of the police being required to turn a blind eye to any illegal activity.

"It is unlawful to manage a brothel, it is unlawful to live off the earnings of a prostitute, both of those are archaic laws.''

A Police Royal Commission in WA recommended the laws be changed to avoid the possibility of police corruption in terms of turning a blind eye to something illegal but unenforceable, Mr McGinty said.

Organised Crime Detective Superintendent Kim Porter said the advent of new prostitution laws would be welcomed.

"The police have certainly been in a difficult position for quite some time, trying to deal with issues that have been not particularly clear in terms of legislation,'' Det Supt Porter said.

"It is very clear that it is an offence to manage a brothel, it's an offence to live off the earnings of prostitution, but there have been difficulties in dealing with other aspects of prostitution.

"This new legislation will give us some ability to deal with those matters and I understand there is a review of that act after two years.''

AAP

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