Where Australian parties stand on sex work decriminalisation

Each position below is sourced exclusively from the party's own published materials — never from media coverage. Click a party for its full platform, donors and members. Individual members' own stated positions are on their record pages.

Recorded divisions on sex work decriminalisation · 4

Every recorded vote on a bill filed under this issue, in each parliament the site holds a division record for — second and third readings, plus any amendment listed with a reason. How each member voted is on their record.

• Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023A private member's bill from Alex Greenwich (independent, Sydney) that would widen the Anti-Discrimination Act to cover sexuality, variations of sex characteristics and sex workers, remove exemptions for private schools, limit religious bodies' employment exemptions to roles relevant to religious practice, and change trans people's access to updated documents, among many other changes.Second reading · New South Wales · Legislative Council · Motion agreed to. 17–1317 Oct 2024 ↗
• Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023A private member's bill from Alex Greenwich (independent, Sydney) that would widen the Anti-Discrimination Act to cover sexuality, variations of sex characteristics and sex workers, remove exemptions for private schools, limit religious bodies' employment exemptions to roles relevant to religious practice, and change trans people's access to updated documents, among many other changes.Third reading · New South Wales · Legislative Council · Motion agreed to. 15–1217 Oct 2024 ↗
• Equality Legislation Amendment (LGBTIQA+) Bill 2023A private member's bill from Alex Greenwich (independent, Sydney) that would widen the Anti-Discrimination Act to cover sexuality, variations of sex characteristics and sex workers, remove exemptions for private schools, limit religious bodies' employment exemptions to roles relevant to religious practice, and change trans people's access to updated documents, among many other changes.Third reading · New South Wales · Legislative Assembly · Motion agreed to . 50–3016 Oct 2024 ↗
• Criminal Code (Decriminalising Sex Work) and Other Legislation Amendment BillRepeals the Criminal Code's chapter on prostitution, decriminalising sex work, and creates new offences against involving children under 18 in commercial sexual services and an amended offence of procuring sexual acts by coercion. Replaces 'lawful sexual activity' with 'sex work activity' as an attribute protected by the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 and repeals that Act's section 106C, while keeping sex work off liquor-licensed premises.Second reading · Queensland · Legislative Assembly · 57th Parliament · Resolved in the affirmative. 49–352 May 2024 ↗

Votes are shown as the official record lists them — Hansard federally and in New South Wales; Votes and Proceedings, Minutes of the Proceedings and Hansard in Victoria; the Record of Proceedings in Queensland; the Votes and Proceedings and Minutes of Proceedings in Western Australia; the Votes and Proceedings (House of Assembly) and Hansard (Legislative Council) in South Australia; the Votes and Proceedings of both chambers in Tasmania. "Did not vote" means the member held the seat that day and is on neither list — the record says who was in the chamber, not why, so it is never an abstention. Western Australia’s record prints no pairs, so a member paired there shows as did not vote. Nothing is shown for a presiding officer who by law gives only a casting vote (the Speaker and the President in South Australia, the President in Tasmania), nor for the member presiding at a Tasmanian division, which Tasmania’s journals record. Which bills sit under which issue is an editorial choice, made bill by bill with a reason read from the second-reading speech. A bill decided by an earlier parliament (Queensland’s 2018 abortion law reform, for one) is shown with that parliament named, read from the official record of the day. For Queensland and the federal parliament “did not vote” there means the member held a seat that day, as their service is recorded; for the other earlier parliaments the record of who held a seat could not be read, so only the printed Aye, No and paired votes are shown.