Women 'trafficked for sex' in Queensland's booming mining towns

The Australian by Petrina Berry From: AAP August 08, 2012 10:22AM

A SEX worker's discrimination win against a Queensland motel has the accommodation industry alarmed.
 
The Accommodation Association of Australia is worried the ruling robs hotel and motel owners of the right to refuse guests who might disturb others.

The Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) ruled the owners of a motel in the mining town of Moranbah breached the Anti-discrimination Act for denying the sex worker a room.
The woman had stayed at the motel 17 times in two years until the property's owners discovered in 2010 she was bringing clients to her room. They then banned her from staying there.

The Gold Coast-based sex worker lost her anti-discrimination case last year but appealed last month.

She won after her lawyer argued many people used the telephone or internet at the motel for business, and a bed was no different.

 ...The ruling could have broader implications for motels and hotels in Queensland's mining boom towns.

The shift to fly-in, fly-out workforces in mining centres has also fuelled a fly-in, fly-out sex trade.

Accommodation Association of Australia chief executive Richard Munro says hotel and motel owners must retain the right to refuse guests who might disturb the amenity of their properties.

" ... the responsibility for making the decision about who is able to stay in (hotels and motels) should lie with the owner, operator, licensee or manager of the business," Mr Munro said in a statement.

The association was considering raising the matter with the Queensland and federal governments, he said.

QCAT is yet to set a hearing date to decide on compensation for the sex worker.

The motel owners' barrister David Edwards told AAP his clients were considering an appeal.

Australian Mining 13 September, 2012 Andrew Duffy

Scarlet Alliance CEO Janelle Fawkes says FIFO sex workers targeting mining towns provide a "valuable service" to regional communities and don't charge higher rates than usual.
In a Q and A with Mamamia http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/sex-workers-in-mining-towns/ Fawkes said FIFO sex workers provided a necessary service and contributed to mining communities by spending money in town.
She also said most mining communities accepted the role played by sex workers.
"In many regional locations I have found the local community to be friendly, interested and respectful," she said.
"Locations like Kalgoorlie in WA have recognized that sex work is part of their history and even have bus tours of the historic sex work strip."
Fawkes said some of the difficulties sex workers faced in targeting regional towns included isolation and a lack of health services and accommodation.
She also said the recent court battle http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/news/fifo-sex-workers-win-motel-battle where a Queensland sex worker won the right to operate out of a motel room proved "the high level of systemic discrimination against sex workers" was no longer acceptable". In the majority of cases sex workers are extremely discreet and nobody even realises sex work is taking place," she said.
You can read the full interview at Mamamia here http://www.mamamia.com.au/news/sex-workers-in-mining-towns/ .

at least nakadating naman sya sa Australia as a student ngayon

That’s great! Pero kon hangol syag kuarta (everyone is), suggest to enrol in a mine related course. If she's lucky, may even get a scholarship sponsored by some mining company desperate for workers. All of them are.

This is a catch-22 scenario. The company can't get the mine operating without workers. The worker can't get the job without experience. The worker can't get experience without, first, being trained for the job.

Note that same logic applies for prospective applicants back home. Boils down to having a most impressive resume.