Tag: Nordic Model
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Legal Brothels Will Not Protect Women: Why Tasmania Needs a Proper Review of Its Sex Industry Laws
On 12 July 2026, The Examiner published an article calling Tasmania’s sex work laws “outdated and dangerous” and urging reform to allow commercial brothels. The piece followed a Change.org petition by Phillip Cox. Mr Cox argues that legal brothels would improve safety and reduce exploitation. The Tasmanian Government and Labor Opposition have both stated they…
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Analysis of the Sex Industry Offences Act 2005 (Tasmania)
Overview The Sex Industry Offences Act 2005 (Tas) is the primary legislation regulating the sex industry in Tasmania. It commenced on a day to be proclaimed and remains in force (as at July 2026). The long title states that the Act imposes restrictions on the operation of sexual services businesses in order to protect children…
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Request for Review of the Sex Industry Offences Act 2005 and Adoption of the Nordic/Equality Model – Email to AG Guy Barnett
Email sent to Tasmania Attorney General Guy Barnett on 13 July 2026 Dear Attorney General Barnett, Re: Request for Review of the Sex Industry Offences Act 2005 and Adoption of the Nordic Model to Address Violence, Exploitation and Barriers to Exit I am writing on behalf of Women Speak Tasmania to urge you to initiate a…
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Reviewing Amnesty International’s Position on Prostitution: A Survivor-Centred Perspective
Before the formation of Women Speak Tasmania, members were already active in campaigning against the decriminalisation of prostitution and advocating for the rights and safety of survivors. Isla MacGregor played a leading role in Tasmania, working alongside Simone Watson and the Nordic Model Australia Coalition (NorMAC) to promote the Nordic Model. Together, they lobbied policymakers,…
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Before Women Speak Tasmania: The Nordic Model Campaign Years (2012–2017)
Although Women Speak Tasmania was formally established in 2018, several founding members — including Isla MacGregor — had been actively engaged for years in advocacy relating to prostitution law reform, sexual exploitation, and trafficking. Much of this work occurred through collaboration with the Nordic Model Australia Coalition (NorMAC) and international abolitionist networks. The period between…
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A New National Settlement on Prostitution: It’s Time for Principled Leadership and Restoration — and a National Apology
AAWAA has been part of a coalition of Australian feminist organisations that has submitted a formal letter to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women, advancing a substantive case for comprehensive national reform to prostitution law and requesting a National Apology for women and girls harmed and criminalised by past and present policies. A…
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Protect Women and Girls from Prostitution – Letter to PM Anthony Albanese and Minister Gallagher
Dear Prime Minister Albanese and Minister Gallagher, Re: Urgent need for a new national approach to prostitution law to protect women and girls, plus a call for a National Apology for all those exploited in prostitution We are a coalition of independent feminist organisations representing groups from across Australia and united in our persistent alarm…
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It’s Bad News from New Zealand’s Survivors …
Survivors from the sex trade in New Zealand are speaking out about the tragic failure of decriminalisation aimed at preventing harms to prostituted women and girls from sex buyers and pimps but here in Tasmania Young Labor and many in the Union movement don’t want to hear their voices. The Scarlet Alliance ramped up their…
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Thomas Kent and the Sex Party Propaganda Machine …
Thomas Kent, in recent comments on an article in Overland journal Sex work and silence by Celeste Elizabeth, member of the Women’s Legal Service Board and self proclaimed delinquent, has outed himself as the propagandist for the Sex Party in Australia he is. While Sex trade apologists Elizabeth and Kent continue to attack abolitionists, they…
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Melbourne Writers’ Festival Panel Dispute Exposes Anti-Survivor Agenda
In the spirit of the popular ‘sex workers are under-represented’ stance, repeated by liberal media and prostitution advocates, ad-nauseum, Daily Life has published yet another article repeating the myth. The author, Kate Iselin, aside from being a self-described “sex worker” and published writer, is also “furious.” This time, the article targets the Melbourne Writers Festival…