How will Victoria’s sex work decriminalisation bill work and will it make the industry safer?

The Sex Work Decriminalisation Act 2021 is set to be debated in Victoria's parliament this week.

The bill will repeal offences for consensual sex work, strengthen anti-discrimination protections for workers and allow the industry to be regulated using existing laws that apply to all other Victorian businesses.

Here's a closer look at the legislation.

Sex work is currently regulated under a legalised model, meaning it is only lawful if it takes place under conditions set out in the Sex Work Act 1994.

Providers who operate a brothel or an escort agency, as well as sex workers who work independently, are required to obtain a licence to operate lawfully.

All sex work that occurs outside this system, including street-based work, is unlawful.

Sex Work Law Reform Victoria said the current model has created a "two-tiered industry", with about 80% of workers operating outside the law.

"The most disadvantaged sex workers, particularly migrant sex workers, gender diverse sex workers, they're the ones that are usually in that illegal underground area and the consequences of that is many feel they are not able to report unfair work practices and crimes to police," spokesperson, Matthew Roberts, said.

For those workers operating legally, their details are permanently kept on a register, which can affect future employment prospects, show up on police checks and even interfere with custody cases.

A 2019 review led by Fiona Patten, a Victorian upper house MP and former sex worker, recommended a full decriminalisation of the industry.

"This bill reflects the recommendations of that review and essentially what it does is it treats sex work the same as any other work," she said.

"It is 40 years in the making."

Patten said the bill is "uniquely Victorian" but takes elements from legislation in the Northern Territory and New South Wales, where sex work was decriminalised in 2019 and 1995 respectively.

There are two stages. The first stage, which comes into effect in March, removes offences for consensual sex work, including those that relate to street-based work and public health.

A new protected attribute of "profession, trade or occupation" is added to the Equal Opportunity Act and a clause making it lawful to refuse accommodation to a sex worker is removed.

A new offence prevents street-based sex work from occurring at or near schools, childcare services and places of worship between 6am and 7pm and on holy days.

The second stage of the bill, to come into effect in December 2023, dismantles the sex work licensing and registration framework by repealing the Sex Work Act in full.

This means the industry will be regulated through standard planning, occupational health and safety and other regulations that apply to all businesses in Victoria.

An updated definition of "commercial sexual services" is also inserted into the Crimes Act 1958, as are certain offences relating to children and coercion.

The bill also orders the changes be reviewed no later than five years after stage two commences, with findings to be tabled in parliament.

Sex worker groups were consulted throughout the process and are largely supportive.

Roberts said the changes to discrimination laws were especially "life changing".

Jules Kim, CEO of Scarlet Alliance, the national organisation for sex workers, pointed to a 2020 study conducted with the Centre for Social Research that found 96% of workers had experienced discrimination in the past 12 months.

"The bill will go a long way in addressing these issues and improving our access to work health and safety, our access to redress in the same ways that other workers are able to," she said.

Animal Justice party MP Andy Meddick wants several amendments to the legislation, including the new offence preventing street work occurring at certain times or locations scrapped as it "directly contradicts the government's stated intentions of making sex work safer".

Kim said the offence means sex workers will continue to be "harassed, surveilled, arrested and fined by the police".

Meddick is also seeking to amend the legislation to include a best practice definition of "sex work" and "sex worker". The only definition in the bill is that being added to the Crimes Act and references drugs as a possible form of payment.

Kim said it was "unnecessarily broad" and not a feature of the NT or NSW legislation.

Meddick is also calling on the government to specify "sex work" and "sex workers" in the changes to the discrimination laws, ensure that Australia's national advertising standards applies to sex workers and abolish the register, given it will no longer be used.

The state government spokesperson said the register records will be destroyed in accordance with the requirements of the Public Records Act 1973.

She said the definition of "commercial sexual services" has been broadened to capture different types of benefit, payment or reward that a person may receive in exchange for sex work and to ensure they are not forced or coerced into undertaking such work.

Meddick consulted with Scarlett Alliance and Vixen Collective, Victoria's peer-only sex worker organisation, in drafting the amendments.

"Unfortunately the bill does fall short in some areas," Vixen Collective acting manager Dylan O'Hara said.

"It does need strengthening to ensure that all parts of our sex worker community can enjoy the benefits of decriminalisation. We need this to be full, genuine decriminalisation that extends to all sex workers."

Guardian Australia understands the opposition will move several amendments, as will the Justice Party, who want to prohibit certain individuals from owning and operating a brothel.

Meddick, Patten, Greens leader Samantha Ratnam, the two Liberal Democratic MPs and Sustainable Australia's Clifford Hayes are supporting it, providing the government with more than enough votes for it to pass the upper house.