LegalNEWS brothel owners see red

GOLD Coast brothel owners are calling a city councillor’s crusade against legal prostitution “idiotic” and misguided, urging a crackdown on illegal massage shops.

Adult industry body the Eros Association has also slammed Southport councillor Dawn Crichlow for hiking legal brothel set-up fees, saying it will just make unregulated shops “10 times worse”.

Cr Crichlow, who pushed through recent fee rises of up to $1100 for adult shops and brothels, said it was about getting rid of the businesses and cleaning up the city.

“We’re trying to put the kibosh on them and by increasing the fees, this is one way of doing it,” she said this week, adding illegal massage shops were also in her sights.

But the Silks on Upton brothel co-owners and sistersin-law Denise and Jenny Rogers said it would make no difference to their operation and wouldn’t force anyone offering legal services to close.

“As if that is going to do anything, it’s just irritating. That silly old bat, she makes me so angry,” Denise Rogers said yesterday.

“Go out and do something about all the massage parlours on the Coast, the ones that are illegal. At least we are regulated and governed by the Prostitution Licensing Authority.

“The illegal ones are cheap, not licensed, don’t have health certificates and the bottom line is when a guy gets horny he doesn’t use his brains. In our place there is no way in the world a guy could ever have sex without a condom.”

Denise Rogers opened the now-shut Black Orchid brothel in Burleigh 15 years ago.

It kept operating as a house of sin, more recently as Secret Liaisons, until a new owner sold the site last week for use as a storage depot, blaming unfair competition from illegal massage shops.

“It’s a little bit quieter on the Coast nowadays and it’s because of all the illegal massage parlours,” Ms Rogers said.

Last year, the Bulletin revealed more than 140 new unregulated massage shops had mushroomed across the city in 12 months.

THAT SILLY OLD BAT, SHE MAKES ME SO ANGRY. GO OUT AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT ALL THE MASSAGE PARLOURS ON THE COAST, THE ONES THAT ARE ILLEGAL.

The Eros Association warned Cr Crichlow’s extra fee slug was a “moralistic, anticompetitive attack” on sex shops and legal businesses.

Eros general manager Rachel Payne said greater work was needed to regulate massage parlours offering illegal sexual services rather than attacking legal businesses.

“By making it more difficult, Cr Crichlow will see the potential for unregulated industry become 10 times worse and it won’t be able to be dealt with on a council level,” she said.

“I do not understand where she is coming from in attacking a taxpaying business.”