Link to original story

Labor MP Dianne Guise broke ranks with her party yesterday to criticise the State Government's controversial push to legalise brothels but said she would still support the legislation.

Ms Guise said she was disappointed that the legislation failed to address the buyers of sexual services and urged the Government to conduct a proper assessment of the so-called Swedish model.

"Could we do better? I think so," Ms Guise told Parliament. "But whilst I am disappointed that more work wasn't done with respect to the so-called Swedish model, I'm at least pleased that the Minister has indicated that a more thorough examination of the Swedish legislation and the outcomes will be investigated."

The Government's hand-picked working party on prostitution law reform dismissed the Swedish model as a failure and committee member Labor MP John Hyde reiterated that view in Parliament again yesterday.

But Ms Guise said outside Parliament that the committee, comprising

Upper House Labor MP Sue Ellery, Mr Hyde, Greens MLC Giz Watson and senior police officers, had failed to properly take account that European nations were moving away from the legalisation of brothels. The information coming out of Sweden is certainly changing," she said.

"Yes, prostitution has been removed from the street but I don't believe they've got rid of it altogether. It's interesting to see that Norway is now looking at implementing the same legislation. I also understand that the Netherlands, where brothels are legalised, the police actually shut down a whole lot of them last year and now they're talking to the Swedish authorities as well. I just find it incredibly disappointing that a more strenuous forensic investigation wasn't undertaken, because so much of it's just rhetoric, frankly, from both sides."

Mr Hyde said independent assessments of the Swedish model had concluded that there was clear evidence of "reshuffling of prostitution arenas" rather than a decline in prostitution since the law was changed in 1999.