Politics

PETER ABETZ- IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF WILBERFORCE

Peter Abetz, the member for Southern River in the WA Parliament, is involved in an honourable course in his efforts to deal with prostitution and the associated sex trafficking.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was the English politician and philanthropist who fought the battle to outlaw slavery as an acceptable form of trade and commerce.

Yet the battle still goes on.

For Abetz the best way to prevent exploitation and trafficking is the Nordic Model, also known as the Swedish model, which strikes at the demand for commercial sex. It also decriminalises those in prostitution and provides support and exit strategies for the women involved.

Market principles apply to sexual services as much as anything else. Men who buy sex create a demand for trafficking and exploitation of women who become chatel to be bought and sold.

Neither the laissez-faire method of containment (a leave alone policy) nor legislation to make the pernicious trade legal is appropriate and Abetz marshals some strong, based on statistics, against both.

He says the 1999 Swedish law, also adopted by Norway and Iceland has changed the onus of criminality from the supplier to the purchaser.

It happened because of the failure of other approaches

In various on-going public meetings Abetz makes the point that while prostitution has been around for a long time, and has never been eliminated, this is no reason to legalise the practice.

“Domestic violence has also been around for a long time but there is no proposal to legalise that, quite the contrary, as it is simply unacceptable in modern society.”

Abetz hammers the point that 70per cent of women involved in prostitution suffer post traumatic stress disorder: over 90 per cent use drugs; a majority never re-enter the fulltime workforce; legal brothels have not reduced the incidence of rape and violence against prostitutes; their life expectancy is lower by 60 per cent, according to a French study, and 95 per cent in the sex industry would exit if they could.

The former Victorian pastor said that every jurisdiction in the world that has legalized prostitution has witnessed a massive increase in demand for such ‘services.’

“Victoria has experienced a 20 to 40 fold increase in the size of their sex industry since legalizing it in 1984.”

There are 100 legal brothels and 400 illegal brothels in that state and each week 60,000 men buy female bodies.

Internationally, every jurisdiction which has legalised prostitution has experienced significant growth in human trafficking which is out of control in Europe.

Netherlands police acknowledge that 85-95 of women in window prostitution are trafficked women. This writer remembers, as a young bloke walking down a street in Brussels, in 1975, and being ‘gob-smacked’ by suddenly seeing scantily dressed women in shop front windows beckoning me to come inside (and the invitation was refused!).

Further, the Russian police estimate that between 35,000-50,000 Russian women are trafficked each year with only two percent returning to their homeland.

As WA contemplates legalising the pernicious trade, Germany and The Netherlands recognise such an approach as a failed experiment.

Just how the Barnett Government can contemplate selling off the TAB, on the spurious grounds of not being involved in gambling (what about the Lottery Commission?), but can blithely be involved in licensing an industry aiding human trafficking, remains a mystery.

Peter Abetz deserves support in his proposal that WA implement the Nordic Model.

While Sweden can be criticised for not dealing with increased rape, caused by Muslim immigration, it has enjoyed success in closing 500 brothels and reducing street prostitution by 60 per cent.

Make no mistake people like Abetz are the reformers not the reactionaries. The Swedish model is the best chance to instill cultural change by making it unacceptable to use women as commodities and not expect legal and financial penalties to follow. The user will pay!