Women Speak Tasmania

Category: Articles

  • NorMAC Nastiness in Hobart: A Response

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    Crikey! The pro-sex trade lobby have been misrepresenting Nordic Model supporters with a renewed vigour. The “Why be poor?” brigade of alleged “sex workers” certainly know how to spin a yarn but it’s the same old yarn and the public are just not swallowing it. After I had a remarkable opportunity to speak at Parliament…

  • A Reality Check on Sex Work

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    Recent articles have argued for and against decriminalization of prostitution. It’s an emotive subject, likely to raise strong commentary, so let’s try and see this argument against some indisputable facts. One: the entire weight of mankind’s experience in all civilised societies round the world has always centred on a stable family (or tribe) unit in which…

  • Van Badham’s Freedom of Speech for Some?

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    Recent twitter comments on 6th April from Guardian Australia columnist Van Badham in support of the sex trade’s campaign to derail the World’s Oldest Oppression conference being held at RMIT this weekend, have many people questioning if Van Badham has any genuine commitment to freedom of speech or not. Van Badham has joined a twitter…

  • Sex Offender’s Sentence Must be Appealed

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    On 23 December we read in the Mercury that Darren John Fenton, 48, received a suspended sentence after being found guilty of the indecent assault of two 13-year old girls on the East Coast last year. The manifestly inadequate sentence, delivered by Justice Helen Wood, is a sorry indictment of the Tasmanian judicial system –…

  • UTAS Women’s Collective: A New Meaning for Inclusive?

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    In six decades of life as a woman, I’ve seen countless expressions of patriarchy. From the family favouritism shown to my brothers, to the societal and workplace inequities of single parenthood, and now the creeping social oblivion of female middle age. I’ve studied and worked in the male dominated professions of accounting and law, and…

  • Amnesty International Condemned over Fast-Tracking of Sex Laws Policy

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    Human Rights and Women’s groups along with Survivors have been outraged over the continued attempt by Amnesty International to rail road through their policy on prostitution after being exposed for failing to properly consult with their international membership base and stakeholders. The proposed Amnesty International International Council policy calling for the decriminalisation of sex work…

  • Amnesty Members put No Confidence Motion in Amnesty Australia Board at Hobart AGM

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    Members of Amnesty International Australia last Saturday (16th May), put a No Confidence Motion in the Amnesty International Australia Board over their actions on Amnesty’s proposed new sex law policy. Two resolutions were put before the Tasmanian Amnesty AGM including a No Confidence Motion in the AIA Board and a resolution on all members right…

  • Scarlett Alliance Fails in Bid to Gag Professor

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    Preamble by Isla MacGregor While Women Speak Tasmania only officially started in 2018, members previously had primarily worked on issues concerning sexual exploitation and the global sex trade with the Nordic Model Australia Coalition (NORMAC). In June 2012 Prof Sheila Jeffreys came to Hobart to lobby Ministers and give public talks.  Former Scarlet Alliance member Jade…