The Fundamental List 3/6/2009
A new voice on the show this week, namely the new ACL ACT Director Nick Jensen who has just finished his Bachelor of Theology & his BA (majoring in religious studies, politics and philosophy) and is a chaplain at a Christian school. I must say his voice sounds very young. He started a year ago at the ACL and now he’s the director of it in the ACT, somehow I think this is more a reflection of the size of the organisation rather than any sort of Napoleonic qualities on his part. We get the oft put platitudes about how this organisation with its reactionary agenda is supposedly non-partisan, although it’s pretty obvious why they feel the need to keep saying this. The talking points don’t vary much from last week (something of a motif with this bunch).
Euthanasia
They basically rehash last week’s points particularly the research (they don’t say where it’s from) claiming one thousand Dutch people are killed every year without their consent under that country’s euthanasia legislation, nor do they expand on what they mean by this, under what circumstances this happens is something we’re left to wonder. They conclude that no safeguards are possible to make the Tasmanian legislation workable.
No Action
Legalised Brothels in Tasmania
A few years ago Tasmania had a review of its prostitution legislation that legalised prostitution but not brothels, the follow up review required by the law has now suggested that brothels be legalised but it doesn’t make it one of its recommendations. Tasmanian politicians are now in the process of deciding whether brothels should be legalised or not, although no legislation has been put forward as yet. Unsurprisingly they don’t want to see this happen and they claim that where brothels have been legalised there have been massive numbers of new ones open up and the illegal trade goes up.
Funny that, Western Australia legalised brothels last year and I’m not aware of any new ones opening up, nor did the ban on them at the time mean that there were no brothels when the Liberals were last in power in WA, what I can remember at the time were quite a number of streetwalkers, a practice that is dangerous for the women involved and not especially nice for everyone else to have to put up with, particularly since they were concentrated in the CBD and nightlife parts of the city and most of the people there were not punters.
The new boy hasn’t quite learned his lines yet and says it is going to happen in every society on some level and the response is to call for the introduction of the Swedish model whereby the man paying for sex is criminalised, not the sex worker. Swedish stats show significantly a reduced number of brothels and the number of women being trafficked to Sweden has fallen. Which all sounds good, but...whilst there are many things I like about Sweden and social democracy is certainly preferable to the much more laissez-faire system of liberal democracy in the US however social democracy has a number of intrinsic flaws and one of them is its adherence to statism. Operating in a nationalist construct blinkers you to the wider ramifications of actions which might be good for your country.
In this case, the critical question is what impact have the (relatively) new laws had on the sex trade in Sweden’s neighbours? Has the number of women being trafficked to nearby countries with different legislation gone up? Has the safety of sex workers in other nearby countries improved or not? (Assuming there haven’t been changes in their laws.) Most importantly has the number of Swedes visiting places like Tallinn in Estonia (nicknamed the Bangkok of Europe and country with one of highest rates of HIV infection in Europe) for sex tourism gone up or not? In other words have the Swedish laws simply displaced the sex trade, especially its more unsavoury aspects to nearby countries? When the stats on Sweden are trotted out by proponents of its legislation we never hear this question being answered so there is plenty of scope to be sceptical about the Swedish approach.
When prostitution was legalised in Western Australia last year, the Swedish model was considered and rejected, despite its architect flying out from Stockholm to meet with then Attorney-General, it would interesting to know why that was.
No action.
Global Financial Crisis
Some stats on the socio-economic impacts of the global financial crisis get a brief mention and some sympathy, but no ideas are put forward on how to deal with these problems, I guess God will provide if they keep faith in capitalism.
Are government departments letting kids down?
They express some concerns about how children are being portrayed in advertising, specifically about sexualised ads of children that were allowed by the NSW Office of the Children’s’ Guardian.
They also complain that laws that are supposed to stop the sale of porn (extreme porn as they put it) in milk bars and service stations are not being enforced even though these magazines are not displayed in plain sight.
No action.
Once again they plug their Charter of Rights campaign briefly before signing off.
Euthanasia
They basically rehash last week’s points particularly the research (they don’t say where it’s from) claiming one thousand Dutch people are killed every year without their consent under that country’s euthanasia legislation, nor do they expand on what they mean by this, under what circumstances this happens is something we’re left to wonder. They conclude that no safeguards are possible to make the Tasmanian legislation workable.
No Action
Legalised Brothels in Tasmania
A few years ago Tasmania had a review of its prostitution legislation that legalised prostitution but not brothels, the follow up review required by the law has now suggested that brothels be legalised but it doesn’t make it one of its recommendations. Tasmanian politicians are now in the process of deciding whether brothels should be legalised or not, although no legislation has been put forward as yet. Unsurprisingly they don’t want to see this happen and they claim that where brothels have been legalised there have been massive numbers of new ones open up and the illegal trade goes up.
Funny that, Western Australia legalised brothels last year and I’m not aware of any new ones opening up, nor did the ban on them at the time mean that there were no brothels when the Liberals were last in power in WA, what I can remember at the time were quite a number of streetwalkers, a practice that is dangerous for the women involved and not especially nice for everyone else to have to put up with, particularly since they were concentrated in the CBD and nightlife parts of the city and most of the people there were not punters.
The new boy hasn’t quite learned his lines yet and says it is going to happen in every society on some level and the response is to call for the introduction of the Swedish model whereby the man paying for sex is criminalised, not the sex worker. Swedish stats show significantly a reduced number of brothels and the number of women being trafficked to Sweden has fallen. Which all sounds good, but...whilst there are many things I like about Sweden and social democracy is certainly preferable to the much more laissez-faire system of liberal democracy in the US however social democracy has a number of intrinsic flaws and one of them is its adherence to statism. Operating in a nationalist construct blinkers you to the wider ramifications of actions which might be good for your country.
In this case, the critical question is what impact have the (relatively) new laws had on the sex trade in Sweden’s neighbours? Has the number of women being trafficked to nearby countries with different legislation gone up? Has the safety of sex workers in other nearby countries improved or not? (Assuming there haven’t been changes in their laws.) Most importantly has the number of Swedes visiting places like Tallinn in Estonia (nicknamed the Bangkok of Europe and country with one of highest rates of HIV infection in Europe) for sex tourism gone up or not? In other words have the Swedish laws simply displaced the sex trade, especially its more unsavoury aspects to nearby countries? When the stats on Sweden are trotted out by proponents of its legislation we never hear this question being answered so there is plenty of scope to be sceptical about the Swedish approach.
When prostitution was legalised in Western Australia last year, the Swedish model was considered and rejected, despite its architect flying out from Stockholm to meet with then Attorney-General, it would interesting to know why that was.
No action.
Global Financial Crisis
Some stats on the socio-economic impacts of the global financial crisis get a brief mention and some sympathy, but no ideas are put forward on how to deal with these problems, I guess God will provide if they keep faith in capitalism.
Are government departments letting kids down?
They express some concerns about how children are being portrayed in advertising, specifically about sexualised ads of children that were allowed by the NSW Office of the Children’s’ Guardian.
They also complain that laws that are supposed to stop the sale of porn (extreme porn as they put it) in milk bars and service stations are not being enforced even though these magazines are not displayed in plain sight.
No action.
Once again they plug their Charter of Rights campaign briefly before signing off.