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Sex work would be treated the same as any other lawful business under recommendations by a major review mapping Queensland's path to decriminalisation.
In a report released on Monday, Queensland Law Reform Commission suggests eliminating sex work offences against consenting adults, with general work health and safety rules to apply.
Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman is calling for sex work to be brought "out of the dark" through a properly regulated industry that prioritises the safety of workers.
"Current laws stigmatise sex workers, it increases their vulnerability to exploitation and violence," Ms Fentiman told Seven News Brisbane on Sunday night.
The law reform review says advertising would not be prohibited on TV or radio, with the same codes and standards as all other businesses to apply.
An exemption that allows accommodation providers to discriminate against sex workers would also be scrapped.
The report makes a distinction between sex work and sexual exploitation, which should be subject to newly defined criminal offences for coercing individuals or involving children in commercial services.
While the decriminalisation of sex work is a question for individual states, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared to back a more regulated approach.
"Clearly criminalising prostitution doesn't really work and drives it underground and leads to worse behaviour and worse treatment of people who are involved in what can be, of course, a dangerous industry," he told KIIS FM on Monday.
Victoria became the third jurisdiction to fully decriminalise sex work in 2022 after NSW in 1995 and the Northern Territory in 2019.
There are two legal forms of regulated sex work in Queensland; services provided in a licensed brothel and those provided by sole operators in-house or as out-calls.
Any other form of sex work is illegal including services provided by escort agencies, unlicensed brothels, massage parlours, street work and two or more sex workers operating from a single premises.
The state has 20 licensed brothels and most sex work occurs outside the regulated or licensed sector.
Based on the experience in other jurisdictions, decriminalisation will not increase the number of sex workers, the review found.
Most sex work is arranged online or via phone, not by soliciting on the street, the commission was told.
The attorney-general asked the for the investigation into a new framework for the industry in August 2021.
Some 160 submissions were received, with input from individual sex workers, brothel managers, clients and advocacy organisations.
More information on the state government plan will be released on Monday.
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Queensland's double jeopardy provisions will be enacted for the second time as police seek to have a man re-tried for a 2009 murder.
Detectives reopened the investigation after receiving fresh and compelling evidence in December 2022.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on Monday was charged a second time over the death.
It is only the second time in Queensland the double jeopardy legislation will be exercised.
Application has been made to the Queensland Court of Appeal to apply for a previously acquitted person to be retried for the offence of murder.
Police Detective Inspector Chris Knight said this arrest showed the persistence of investigators to achieve justice for victims of crime.
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A sex work sector that protects against exploitation and violence is expected to be at the centre of a Queensland government response to a major review of the industry.
Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman wants sex work brought "out of the dark" through a properly regulated industry that prioritises the safety of workers.
"Current laws stigmatise sex workers, it increases their vulnerability to exploitation and violence," Ms Fentiman told Seven News Brisbane on Sunday night.
While the decriminalisation of sex work is a question for individual states, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appeared to back a more regulated approach.
"Clearly criminalising prostitution doesn't really work and drives it underground and leads to worse behaviour and worse treatment of people who are involved in what can be, of course, a dangerous industry," he told KIIS FM on Monday.
Victoria became the third jurisdiction to fully decriminalise sex work in 2022 after NSW in 1995 and the Northern Territory in 2019.
There are two legal forms of regulated sex work in Queensland: services provided in a licensed brothel, not including outcalls from the premises; and those provided by sole operators in-house or as outcalls.
Any other form of sex work is illegal including services provided by escort agencies, unlicensed brothels, massage parlours, street work and two or more sex workers operating from a single premises.
The state has 20 licensed brothels and most sex work occurs outside the regulated or licensed sector.
The attorney-general asked the Queensland Law Reform Commission to review and investigate the regulation of a new framework for the industry in August 2021.
"Decriminalising sex work will mean sex work is no longer a crime. But it does not mean no regulations or safeguards," the commission said in a review updated in November.
"People in the sex work industry will have protections and obligations under standard workplace, health, planning and other existing general laws."
Some 160 submissions have been received, with input from individual sex workers, brothel managers, clients and advocacy organisations.
More information on the state government plan will be released on Monday.
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Friends of Barry Humphries have labelled the Melbourne International Comedy Festival a disgrace for not celebrating the entertainment legend, who helped start the annual event.
Humphries died on Saturday at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney following complications from hip surgery stemming from a fall earlier this year. He was 89.
The festival joined the chorus of local tributes to the revered comic despite its chequered history with the late star.
Humphries delighted and outraged audiences for more than half a century and was a founding patron of the festival, leading to it naming its annual prize for most outstanding act after him in 2000.
But an outcry over a series of comments widely seen as transphobic prompted the renaming of the festival's top gong in 2019.
Organisers said on Sunday they were saddened by Humphries' passing and hailed his contribution to the festival during its formative years.
Despite Humphries' name being stripped from the award and no formal tribute taking place on the final night of the 2023 festival, event director Susan Provan said nothing could ever detract from his contribution as an artist.
Irish comedian Dylan Moran paid tribute to Humphries in front of a packed audience on Sunday night.
Friend and collaborator Bruce Beresford and British-Australian entertainer Miriam Margolyes both said it was disgraceful to see the festival treat Humphries the way it had.
"It's a disgrace what they've done, I mean he's one of the greatest comic geniuses ever," film director Beresford told ABC Melbourne on Monday.
"How can you take his name off an award like that? How offensive, how insulting.
"Barry was in many ways a social commentator - he was really commenting and giving a view on incidents in the world around him, which is what he'd been doing all his life, but ... I don't think he was malevolent or malicious."
Margolyes called on festival organisers to "sharpen up".
"How dare they. He had more talent in his little finger than they did in their whole bodies - all of them. I'm outraged by it and I want to speak up now to support him. It's not about transgender (issues)" she told ABC TV.
Margolyes said she didn't agree with her friend's politics - a fact she told him to his face - but she still appreciated Humphries as "the greatest comic who ever lived".
"I didn't like his politics. I really didn't. But I revere the talent of the man," she said.
"It was coruscating; it was all-enveloping. And if people can't see that, they need something shoved up their bum."
The comments come as the family of the Melbourne-born comedy legend discuss the possibility of a state funeral with the Victorian government.
Creative Industries Minister Steve Dimopoulos said talks were under way with the entertainer's loved ones about the best ways to honour his legacy.
A range of options are on the table, including a state funeral.
© AAP 2023
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