In a joint Four Corners/Fairfax special investigation to air tonight on the ABC, reporter Sally Neighbour exposes the brutal illegal offshoot of the sex industry — slavery. In a report that exposes the worst excesses of human trafficking, she reveals how networks of criminal gangs are luring women to Australia where they are forced to work as sex slaves. If they refuse they are beaten and their families are threatened.
This is not the illegal brothel trade we are talking about here. Unfortunately for those government authorities that have oversight of brothel regulation in the various states, this is happening in legal brothels.
The investigation begins in brothels in Australia’s major cities. Using public records and information gathered from industry insiders, they investigated the extent of the networks and detail the methods used by the gangs and their standover men to force women to work in this brutal industry. I assisted the Four Corners investigation by providing the names of dodgy Sydney Asian brothels and other relevant information.
In a report this morning in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald it’s alleged legal brothels in NSW and Victoria are operating unchecked despite police investigations implicating them in human trafficking, sex slavery and organised crime. It names the Five Star in Woolloomooloo, which was approved by the City of Sydney, and the Candy Club in Melbourne, licensed by the Victorian government.
Others named were Nadira Entertainment in inner-city Sydney, which specialises in Korean pr-stitutes. It is closely linked to the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle club and senior Asian organised crime figures. Regarding House, in Melbourne’s Heidelberg, where a sex slave allegedly worked in 2009. The owner of the premises is linked to a Chinese syndicate that runs illegal brothels and 39 Tope Street in South Melbourne, from which authorities removed two women in late 2008 due to s-x slavery allegations which the licensee later denied.
If I was a prospective Asian sex trafficker I would make a beeline for Sydney because of the lax brothel regulation in that state. Setting up a dodgy brothel business is easy because there are no probity checks done on the owners. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can get a brothel license in NSW irrespective of their criminal background.
You could be a convicted murderer, sex trafficker, child molester or crime boss and there is nothing to stop you owning a brothel in NSW. This is because brothels are regulated under NSW planning laws, not the criminal code. Local councils only consider whether the location of the proposed brothel meets local zoning laws. Otherwise everything else is fine.
Information on sex slavery held by the Australian authorities is not extensive. The Four Corners investigation revealed “scores” of women trafficked to Australia. Around the world the problem is much worse. In Peru last week 300 women were rescued from sex slavery in Peruvian brothels, including at least 10 minors — the youngest was a 13-year-old girl.
That is not to say we shouldn’t recognise that we have a problem here. Last month SBS programmed last month a story called Trafficked — The Reckoning, which was the inspiring story of a former AFP officer, Chris Payne, and his quest to find and bring to justice the man who enslaved a 13-year-old Thai girl in a Sydney brothel. The young girl named Ning, now 28, has suffered psychological problems including attempted suicide and drug dependency. She is also HIV. The consequences for each individual are huge.
The sooner brothel regulation is taken out of the hands of local councils and given back to the police cannot come soon enough.
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Does no-one else find it peculiar that a man who runs a business called “brothel-busters” – working on behalf of big brothels to drive little brothels out of the market – consistently gets such a platform on Crikey? His pieces are gigantic adverts for his business and clients, nothing less. How is this not completely obvious?
He shuts illegal brothels – nothing wrong with that. Ones that operate against the LAW such as the ones that harbour sex slaves and illegal immigrants. You sound like you are from Scarlet Alliance?
No, but I’ve read some of their stuff to balance these slobberingly lurid pieces the SMH keeps publishing. Disappointed to see Crikey running this kind of titty journalism too: you don’t need it, Crikey – you have a functioning paywall; no need to sell editorial.
You have to question the motives of someone that criticises a piece about the exploitation of women and also makes a personal attack on the author.
Human trafficking is a world wide problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking
It has been identified as the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. It is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world.
If that isn’t a serious issue then what is? Crikey ran it because it is a serious issue. Presumably it is why Four Corners are running it as well.
Yes, because the police did such a sterling job of keeping brothels in line back when it was their responsibility – sarcasm alert – police corruption was intimately tied to their vice responsibilities back in the day, I don’t think anyone wants to see us go back to the bad old days.
Certainly, it is a different case when brothels were illegal but tolerated – a completely untenable situation for the police – however the author is still advocating mixing police and what is claimed in the article to be the fringes of organized crime in some unhappy truce – not a good look for the police.
The police should obviously have the power and resources to look for and investigate all illegal activity, particularly such serious criminality as slavery and people trafficking. They should do so at arms length from regulation of brothels, however.
I also have to agree with ‘Splendid Syncopation’ that the general tone of this piece is unbecoming of a serious article. It is altogether too breathless and scattergun – the 2nd and 3rd last paragraphs rattle between talking about ‘scores’ of women trafficked to Australia to a report from Peru back to ‘That is not to say we shouldn’t recognise that we have a problem here’ – I thought the point of your article was to say we had a problem here, why flit off to Peru? What does Peruvian law/regulation/policing have to do with ours? Is there some point here apart from ‘oh look here is something bad in Peru that the author can tar Australia with without any actual link’.
Of course there is no excuse or justification for the appalling treatment of these women and girls, and we should do everything we can to stamp trafficking and slavery out. There are two separate issues here – the powers and resourcing of the police, and the effectiveness of regulations over brothels. The author has conflated the two issues providing no clarity on what real solutions might be.
Regulation is a difficult area to get right – if you make the regulation too onerous then you drive brothels ‘underground’ into that murky twilight realm that promotes official corruption and really connects organized crime to brothels. You need to get the regulation right – perhaps, as the author says, regulation is inadequate at the moment, but that is something that can be addressed and improved – the author has suggested nothing short of tearing down the current regime and, in my opinion, throwing the baby out with the bath water.