Contact Admin. Complaints about the spread of illegal brothels have jumped by more than a third in Sydney since recommendations to improve industry regulations were blocked by the NSW government last year. Fairfax Media can reveal that since a proposed licensing system and specialist police unit were rejected in May , the City of Sydney has witnessed a 37 per cent increase in reports from disgruntled businesses and members of the public, triggering 80 separate investigations that can take up to two years to complete.
The head of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad recently warned a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into human trafficking that exploited overseas workers were slipping through the cracks because there was now no way to identify — or stop — underground brothels. When asked if she thought it would "limit human trafficking of young women into Australia", she replied: Former premier Mike Baird established a brothel inquiry in after an extensive Fairfax Media investigation showed that councils had become powerless to prevent illegal parlours opening anywhere, including alongside schools, learning centres and within residential buildings.
Hundreds of those businesses were found masquerading as remedial massage centres — with some even offering medicare rebates on sexual services. Among those to give evidence at the inquiry was former deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas, who spoke of Asian sex workers on student and tourist visas being drawn into a life of virtual slavery. The committee recommended a new standalone police unit to work alongside councils, with greater powers to enter premises and monitor illegal activity.
However, the Baird government declined to rubber stamp those changes, arguing it would recriminalise prostitution and put the health of sex workers at risk. The decision sparked celebrations among sex industry groups who had pointed out that police had previously been stripped of such powers and the industry decriminalised, in the mid-'90s, because of widespread corruption.
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