ILLEGAL BROTHELS A SERIOUS PROBLEM

THE Gold Coast faces a serious threat to its reputation with the continued prevalence of illegal brothels masquerading as massage parlours. Those with long memories will surely think back to the seedy days of the 1980s and the pre-Fitzgerald Inquiry era when sleaze and the Gold Coast ran hand-in-hand.

It was the place where risk-takers came for a “good” time rather than simply a good time.

This didn’t end with the fall of the Bjelke-Petersen government and has continued in an albeit truncated form ever since.

But it’s not the 1980s any more and the Gold Coast of days past is long gone, yet the illegal brothels remain, despite the efforts of police to stamp out this scourge on society.

The Gold Coast has worked hard in the past 15 years to shed its sin city image and refocus on its place as a family-friendly tourist destination which welcomes young and old.

Everyone recognised the nightclubs and the darker side of the Glitter Strip exists and has both its place and its fans.

However, nobody could seriously argue that these neon-signed dens of sleaze should still have any role in this city.

Legal brothels exist and provide a safe and accessible service, with stringent health checks and other measures in place to ensure the safety of both workers and patrons.

These fly-by-night operators are anything but that.

They should, and must, be loudly condemned.

Police are working hard to clamp down on this and these moves must be supported.

But beyond the crime itself, there is a larger societal issue which must be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

For far too long there has been a sort of ‘ wink, wink, nudge, nudge’ approach taken by the community, exacerbated by the usage of jocular colloquialisms such as “rub and tug” and “happy ending”.

While this might play into the boys will be boys approach of the past, it is hardly in line with modern standards.

But it also papers over some of the very real issues which are associated with this kind of illegal sex work, namely, the grotesque nature of exploiting those vulnerable women who are forced to partake in these actions.

Queensland Police Prostitution Enforcement Taskforce Detective Inspector Juliet Hancock correctly points out that language is important when dealing with criminal matters and these long outdated phrases indeed downplay the serious nature of the crimes they are describing. We must do better.