by EDWINA STORIE

Victoria has just announced it will decriminalise sex work, whether it be through self-employment, small employers, or large companies.

This is an important move towards not only destigmatising sex work, but allowing the industry to be regulated through the same business legislation as all others. These changes come from a review led by MP Fiona Patten, which started back in November 2019.

Over the coming two years, new reforms will be established to increase the safety of sex workers and improve their access to government health and justice services. Consensual sex work will no longer be an offence and the Sex Work Act 1994 will be repealed.

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Read the full article on Junkee’s website.

This is a red letter day for the red light industry. The Government’s announcement it will implement my recommendation to decriminalise sex work as legitimate employment will protect these workers and reduce the stigma and discrimination they have for so long endured.

After pursuing this fair, decent and fundamental reform for years, I was appointed in 2019 by the Government to lead an inquiry into laws governing sex work in Victoria, and to find the best way of decriminalising sex work in Victoria. These changes flow from that report.

They include:

• removing offences and criminal penalties for consensual sex work;
• repealing public health offences;
• repealing the Sex Work Act 1994 to instead regulate sex work through existing government agencies and business regulation;
• modernising planning, public health and anti-discrimination laws to support a decriminalised system.

This is a case of making the world better by removing a discriminatory law, not imposing a new law. It simply extends to all sex workers the occupational health and safety, welfare and taxation coverage of any other employee.

It is based on listening to sex workers, as well as legal and public policy experts. The collective view of all the sex worker groups was that decriminalising the industry was by far the best way to give them the best occupational health and safety outcomes.

These changes will allow them to make a true profession out of their work – to pay tax, demand better conditions and be more open with their friends and family about what they do. It’s not a new view. In 1985 when regulation of the sex industry was first being investigated by Professor Marcia Neave, the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria was calling for a decriminalisation.

Victoria’s law is finally coming into coming into the modern era, in line with many other jurisdictions. NSW did this as long ago as 1995.

I welcome Consumer Affairs Minister Melissa Horne’s statement: ‘’Every Victorian deserves to feel safe in their place of work – decriminalisation will ensure that sex work is safe work and go a long way towards breaking down the stigma sex workers continue to experience.’’

I am proud of the progress we have forged through mature collaboration between government and the community.

 – ENDS –

Signed,

Daniel Aghion, Gary Boumer, Jason Byrne, Ian Carson,
Dr Diana Cousens, Max Delany, Meredith Doig, Michael Gill,
Anna Krohn, Father Peter Macleod-Miller, Father Bob Maguire, Alistair Macrae,
Karen Mahlab, Pat McGorry, Simon McKeon, Paul Mercurio,
Eddie Micallef, William Mora, Heidi Nicholl,

FIONA PATTEN | LEADER OF THE REASON PARTY

Let us pray. Or not. Everybody has the right to religious faith. Nobody has the right to impose their religious faith. No religion has a spiritual or moral monopoly.

With freedom of religion comes the responsibility to respect others’ freedom to follow another god, or none. And politicians should reflect and respect the communities they serve. It’s time for a fair go for religion.

So, I am seeking to replace – not remove – the Lord’s Prayer from the start of parliamentary sitting days by allowing people of any faith, or none, to pray. I am moving a motion to simply have the President of the Legislative Council open the day by instructing “Members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of Victoria”. I want to protect freedom of religion and liberty in the broad.

A reasonable way, one in line with the democratic cornerstone of the separation of church and state, is to maintain the ability of Christian MPs to observe the sanctity of the Lord’s Prayer while at the same moment allowing non-Christian MPs to focus on their religious beliefs or on the venerated job of exercising legislative power. Starting the parliamentary day with a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer has become divisive and disrespectful. The people’s parliament should be driven by the people’s interests.

When the reading of a version of the Lord’s Prayer was adopted more than a century ago, nine in 10 people living in Australia professed to be Christian. Today, that has declined to about half. The 2016 census recorded more than 100 different religious affiliations in Australia. And we are secular; almost one in three profess to have no religion, the biggest single category identified in the last census.

The motion protects religion. When last this was discussed, in 2019, the Liberal Party opposed the notion, citing “tradition’’ and “respect for the rights of each and every individual’’.

Yet one of the chamber’s prominent Liberal members posted this on his website: “At a time when the Victorian community needs to come together as never before, Satan’s Little Helper, Fiona Patten, has announced she will move a motion to remove the Lord’s Prayer for the start of each parliamentary sitting day. I have had more than enough of her hate campaign against Christianity. Time to draw a line in the sand! Are you with me??’’ The government appears more open to the change.

In 2019, Premier Dan Andrews said: “If it were a multi-faith moment if you like, at the beginning of the parliament day, perhaps that would be more reflective of what modern Victoria looks like.’’

Think, if you will, of some of the traditions we’ve shed in the name of civil society. The male monopolisation of suffrage. A woman’s place is in the bedroom and the kitchen. corporal punishment of children. Having God Save the Queen as our national anthem. And so on.

The motion is a modest declaration for the freedom to worship. It disadvantages no one, makes space for all. It is an opportunity to honour principles that ought to guide every member of parliament – fairness and freedom.

The Age’s View | Editor, Gay Alcorn

The Lord’s Prayer has been a regular fixture in the Victorian Parliament since the early part of last century. It has been recited at the start of each sitting day since 1918. The prayer, which begins with the line, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name,” is considered central to the Christian faith and is said across most Christian denominations with some small variations in wording.

The prayer opens the sitting day in Federal Parliament, and most of the state and territory parliaments across Australia have a requirement to read a prayer at the start of proceedings, the majority of them reading the Lord’s Prayer. The ACT Parliament, by contrast, asks its members to stand in silence, and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the ACT.

This week, changes to the 103-year-old tradition in Victoria are being put forward. Reason Party upper house MP Fiona Patten will push for a debate and a vote on a motion to scrap the prayer and instead have the President of the Legislative Council open the day by instructing MPs “to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of Victoria”, not unlike the ACT model.

Ms Patten, an atheist, has argued since 2019 that reciting the prayer makes Parliament seem like a “Christian’s club”, which she says is inappropriate for a secular institution. She says there are more than 100 religious affiliations in Australia and a parliament designed to represent a multicultural, multi-faith society should not be so closely tied to one religious viewpoint…

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Read the full article on The Age’s website.

Anthony Bunn
Picture: MARK JESSER

THE North East’s most senior Christian leader has indicated he supports removing the Lord’s Prayer from Victorian Upper House sittings. Anglican Bishop of Wangaratta Clarence Bester was reacting to a bid by Reason Party leader Fiona Patten to end daily reading of the plea.

She will put a motion to the Legislative Council on Wednesday to have the Lord’s Prayer replaced with a moment of contemplation. Bishop Bester said that Australia was a secular state with people of many faiths.

“No particular faith or religious tradition should have the monopoly of our ever changing society and we should be respectful of each other in every respect,” Bishop Bester said. “I do believe that questions or suggestions to this effect will come more to the fore as with Fiona Patten’s suggestion.

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Access the full article on the Border Mail’s website.

By Ali MC

Soon after he left foster care, Phil found himself living on the streets of Melbourne, where he says he would sleep on traffic islands as they were brightly lit and felt safer.

More than 116,000 people are homeless on any given night in Australia and that number is rising all the time. As the country marks Homelessness Week, we tell some of their stories.

Melbourne, Australia – Few people would consider sleeping in a public toilet, on a park bench or on a traffic island “lucky”.

But that is how 50-year-old Phil, who asked that we only use his first name, considers the decade he spent living homeless on the streets of Melbourne…

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The state of Victoria has been criticised for not only having the greatest housing shortage in Australia but also for spending the least to tackle the problem. Recently, however, the government made moves to rectify the issue, holding a parliamentary inquiry into homelessness within the state and announcing increased funding to build new public homes.

Fiona Patten, who chaired the inquiry, said the process relied largely on submissions from people who had experienced homelessness, all of whom said “give us a home.”

But in addition to examining housing provision, Patten said the inquiry also asked, “how could we have helped that person not to become homeless?”

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Read the full article on Al Jazeera’s website.

This article is part of a series supported by the City of Yarra. Read more from this series:

Australia’s ‘Stolen Generations’: ‘Heroin use hid the pain’

Australia’s ‘invisible’ homeless women

Australia’s homeless children: ‘We’re easily manipulated’

Australia’s ‘revolving door’ of prison and homelessness

Can ‘safe injecting sites’ help Australia’s homeless?

‘Nothing more humiliating’: The Australians turning to begging

How has COVID-19 affected Australia’s homeless?

Interview with Fiona Patten, Reason Party Leader. Patten discusses why it’s important to replace the Lord’s Prayer with a moment of silent reflection in Parliament.