Opposition leader must declare his position on suburban brothels

Attorney General Christian Porter has called on the Opposition to explain the extraordinary and dishonest claims that Labor's 2008 Prostitution Bill would not have allowed brothels in suburban Western Australia.

On morning talkback radio on Wednesday, June 15, Opposition leader Eric Ripper publicly declared that Labor 'wasn't going to allow brothels to operate in the suburbs'.

Mr Porter said this statement showed a staggering and wilful disregard for what Labor had proposed two years ago.

"The Labor Bill, which Eric Ripper and John Quigley voted for, allowed 'micro brothels' of two or less prostitutes to operate in any residential area in any street, in any suburb," the Attorney General said.

"Under s 21B of the Labor Bill, there would be no State Government controls of any kind over brothels with two or less prostitutes. Operating such a business would not be a criminal offence, and would not be a matter for police.

"What this would have meant is that if police couldn't be sure how many people were working in a brothel, it wouldn't have been their problem, it would have been local government's problem.

"Further still, under Labor's draft planning policy, these micro-brothels were not a prohibited planning use in residential areas and local government was required to consider applications for micro-brothels in residential areas.

"This was recognised as disastrous by local governments across the State. There would have been no practicable way of responding to public complaints about brothels in residential areas and no practicable way of preventing them from operating.

"Mr Ripper and Mr Quigley may not own a dictionary, but I can assure them that a brothel is a place of business, located anywhere, where people go to have sex with prostitutes - regardless of how many prostitutes work there.

"If they know this, then they have conveniently forgotten what made their Bill so unacceptable to ordinary West Australians and local governments across the State.

"If Labor's position has now changed, and they now recognise that ordinary West Australians overwhelmingly don't want to live next to brothels then I welcome that development and look forward to their support of the Liberal-National Government's Bill."