The sexual health of sex workers: no bad whores, just bad laws

National Centre in HIV Social Research, The University of New South Wales, Funded by NSW Health and partially funded by the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

“Sex workers are a group vilified, discriminated against and without
many of the legal and social protections most people take for
granted yet since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, sex workers
in Australia have enjoyed extremely low rates of HIV transmission.
Peer education and sex worker advocacy at individual and systemic
levels are necessary to maintain these low rates of transmission.”

Decriminalisation is considered the best model of legislation for sex worker health, safety and well-being. It achieves the best health outcome for sex workers, placing the regulation of the industry in the hands of local councils and not police. While not perfect (e.g. local councils can abuse their power by denying Development Application’s for brothels), it remains the most effective model.