Nile stalks Sydney’s sex trade

The Reverend Fred Nile plans to catch sex customers with their pants down in a bid to out wipe street prostitution in Sydney overnight.

Rev Nile, Leader of the Christian Democratic Party, will introduce a Bill to the NSW Parliament targeting male customers of the sex industry who don’t want to be embarrassed.

“I think it’s going to make it very difficult for brothels to operate and certainly it would stop street prostitution almost overnight,” said Nile, whose proposed Crimes Amendment (Soliciting Sex for Payment) Bill 2009 would prohibit individuals from soliciting another for sexual services for payment.

Meanwhile researchers from the University of Technology Sydney have been awarded a grant to develop the best model for sex industry regulation in Greater Sydney.

“What we’re wanting to do is undertake more comprehensive empirical research which will inform urban planning and environmental controls,” said Professor Spike Boydell, the research team leader.

The research will include discreet interviews with residents living near sex industry premises, sex workers and other stakeholders.

Rev Nile said that while the UTS research would be useful if it were impossible to rid Sydney of prostitution, he said he believed it was an achievable goal.

“I’m taking the point of view that it’s not inevitable and society can do something about it.” said Rev Nile

But Prof Boydell said sex service premises can actually cause less of a disturbance to residents than other local companies.

“The … preliminary evidence suggests that there’s often less disturbance from those discreet types of users than there are for people who’ve got a pub on the corner of the street,” Prof Boydell said.

Rachel Sandford, acting manager of the Sex Workers Outreach Project, said she is very interested to see whether the researchers find a discrepancy between common misconceptions and the real impact of the sex industry on communities. She hopes the results will help councils and the sex industry to work better together and promote safety.

“SWOP is always in support of initiatives which may assist in the safety of sex workers,” Ms Sandford said.

“We’re interested in the perceived impact of the sex industry in the community and the actual impact.”

Prof Boydell said the NSW Government has various Acts governing the sex industry and local councils may choose to exercise their power in many different ways.

The UTS research team intends to publish their findings in 2010 and provide recommendations for legislative reforms that reflect community needs.