The stated main purposes of the Bill are: The Minister for Consumer Affairs, the Hon. Additionally, the Bill will ensure that the Business Licensing Authority must refuse an application for a licence to carry on business as a sex work service provider where that applicant has been convicted, or found guilty, of a disqualifying indictable offence, that renders the grant of a licence to that person against the public interest.
At present, an application may be refused if the applicant has been convicted of a disqualifying offence within the last five years. A brief review of the legislative history of prostitution in Victoria shows shifts between attempts at prohibition and regulation.
In this social context, the laws operated to stigmatise and control women working as prostitutes, while at the same time allowing men access to sexual services. A policy of prohibition and criminalisation continued in Victoria until when the Planning Brothels Act formally decriminalised licensed brothels and regulated the industry.
In , the Crimes Act introduced a range of measures to enforce the prohibition of prostitution. In particular, the procurement ss or detention ss of women either through inducements or violence to work as prostitutes was prohibited. The Conservation of Public Health Act imposed health inspections on women suspected of being prostitutes.
Although the provisions remained in force until , the initiative was ineffective both in terms of the explicit aim of controlling the spread of venereal disease [footnote15] and the implicit aim of controlling prostitution. There were amendments to legislation in the early part of the 20 th century further prohibiting various aspects of prostitution and brothel keeping, however the laws were not consistently enforced. It was only when many of the brothels became linked to cocaine distribution rackets that police were permanently stationed in the area and the brothels were shut down.
