Publication: The Australian (005,Mon 13 Aug 2007)
POLICE have welcomed proposals to decriminalise and regulate West Australian brothels, in a move to be debated in state parliament in the next month. State Attorney-General Jim McGinty will introduce legislation into parliament when it resumes next week that would allow brothels to operate legally. Prostitution is not prohibited in Western Australia but it is illegal to manage a brothel and live off prostitution earnings.

Mr McGinty says the laws are archaic and need to be changed.
``Prostitution is an unfortunate fact of life,'' he said. ``The new laws, which we will be introducing to parliament in the next month, will see brothels regularised to the extent that we accept the reality they are there, and what we want to do is give local government the power to regulate where they are located and how they operate. ``We want to give police the power to properly control activities that might be crime-related, but most importantly we don't want the absurd situation of the police being required to turn a blind eye to any illegal activity. ``It's unlawful to manage a brothel, it's unlawful to live off the earnings of a prostitute -- both of those are archaic laws.'' A royal commission recommended the laws be changed to avoid the possibility of police corruption in turning a blind eye to something illegal but unenforceable, Mr McGinty said. Detective Superintendent Kim Porter of the Organised Crime unit said the new laws were welcome. ``The police have certainly been in a difficult position for quite some time, trying to deal with issues that have been not particularly clear in terms of legislation,'' he said. ``It is very clear it's an offence to manage a brothel, it's an offence to live off the earnings of prostitution, but there have been difficulties in dealing with other aspects of prostitution. This new legislation will give us some ability to deal with those matters, and I understand there is a review after two