Anti abortion crusaders have reached a new low with Reverend Fred Nile using misleading tactics to try and generate support for his personal quest to deny women their right to make their own reproductive choices.

“It’s disgraceful that Fred Nile is attempting to capitalise on the personal tragedy that Brodie Donegan has experiencd to push his anti-women, extreme religious agenda,” said NSW Greens MP and lead Senate candidate Cate Faehrmann.

“Now that we are entering an election year, Fred Nile’s anti-abortion agenda has kicked in to overdrive. We can expect a lot more anti-abortion hysteria from Fred Nile and his party in the coming weeks and months.

“Just this week Fred Nile’s newsletter, Family Voice, had a graphic and deliberately contentious image of a late-term abortion on the front page.

“Fred Nile continues to undermine a woman’s right to choose in the NSW Parliament. This latest offensive move demonstrates that he is willing to cross the line of compassion and decency in order to push his own agenda.

“In this federal election year – with Tony Abbott waiting in the wings to attack women’s rights nationally – women should be highly alert as extremists like Fred Nile attempt to impose their destructive and damaging personal agenda on our lives and choices.

“The basic right of all women to choose is more important for the future of our families than Fred Nile’s personal crusade against women,” said Ms Faehrmann.

There are growing expectations that governments will respond harshly and swiftly to the latest allegations of human trafficking and sex slavery.

As lawmakers however, we need to ensure that pressure to address these injustices does not lead to us creating a more dangerous working environment for the vast majority of Australia’s sex workers who perform their work safely and legitimately.

Placing tough restrictions on, or criminalising, the industry is not the answer.

The model for sex industry regulation that is increasingly being recognised as world’s best practice for both the human rights and health outcomes for sex workers and their clients is decriminalisation. Both New South Wales and New Zealand’s sex industries are decriminalised.

The current NSW framework was the result of many drivers for change, not least of which was the Wood Royal Commission and the recognition that in a criminalised environment, brothel operators and sex workers had strong motivation to seek out the protection of organised crime and corrupt law enforcement.

Even more importantly, decriminalisation removed the fear of being reported to police and allowed sex workers better access to the kind of health and information services other workers take for granted.

NSW is now a respected world leader with outstanding health achievements such as a 99 per cent rate of condom use amongst sex workers and lower rates of sexually transmitted infections amongst sex workers than in comparable groups in the general community.[1]

These health outcomes are thanks to the work of organisations such as the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP).  SWOP run a variety of health promotion programs and provide outreach to sex workers. They also work with owners to encourage the acceptance and maintenance of safe sex practices, and other forms of workplace health and safety.

SWOP, Scarlet Alliance and other sex industry health experts are alarmed at new speculation the NSW Government will legislate for a ‘Brothel Licensing Authority’. [2] The evidence against licensing is overwhelming, and we need to slow down and carefully consider what outcomes we want to achieve and how to achieve them.

Licensing schemes create a two-tiered system of legal and illegal brothels, increase illegal sex work, drive workers underground and reduce access to health services and law enforcement. In many cases, licensing will make monitoring of brothels and support for sex workers more difficult, not less.

Currently, brothels are a legitimate commercial land use, and regulated by local government through environmental planning laws. This means organisations like SWOP and the police can easily gain access to most sex workers.

Consider the impact on community health and organised crime if NSW went the way of Queensland where 90% of the sex industry is unlicensed and therefore unregulated, illegal and driven underground.[3]

Globally, the UN is advocating decriminalisation to remove obstacles to effective HIV prevention.[4] In NSW the 2001 ‘Brothels Task Force’ said “… care must be taken to ensure that planning controls do not create barriers to the implementation of effective public health policies and services directed at sex workers in all facets of the sex industry.”

One recent study from 2010, a collaboration between sexual health experts at the Sydney Sexual Health Centre, the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, Melbourne Sexual Health Centre and others, assessed the impact of the law on the delivery of health promotion and found that brothel licensing results in the unlicensed sector being isolated from peer education and support.[5]

NSW must avoid a knee-jerk and poorly considered reaction to the appalling crime of sexual slavery, which exists globally regardless of licensing schemes.

Police efforts are better placed investigating and prosecuting sexual slavery and human trafficking, which are already serious crimes, than enforcing new laws which make new criminals. Sexual slavery is a crime – sex work is not.

Similarly, the government should be looking at ways to address the sometimes arbitrary and inconsistent implementation of existing sex industry guidelines across local government, rather than making criminals out of currently law abiding citizens.

The evidence shows that brothel licensing in NSW could have the opposite effect of what is intended. The bottom line is that a licensing scheme is likely to reduce community health, put sex workers in more danger of violence and fail to reduce human trafficking.

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[1] Donovan, B., Harcourt, C., Egger, S., & Fairley, C. K. (2010). Improving the health of sex workers in NSW: maintaining success. NSW Public Health Bulletin, 21, 74–77.

[2] Sex Workers Outreach Project, Media Release http://www.swop.org.au/sites/default/files/Brothel_Licencing.pdf

[3] A Schloenhardt & Human Trafficking Working Group, Happy Birthday Brothels: Ten Years of Prostitution Regulation in Queensland, (2009).

[4] UNAIDS, Guidance Note on HIV and Sex Work, (2009).                                                                              
& UNAIDS, Report on the global AIDS epidemic 2010, Chapter 5, p137.

[5] C Harcourt, J O’Connor, S Egger, et. al., ‘The decriminalisation of prostitution is associated with better coverage of health promotion programs for sex workers’, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol 35 (5), (2010).

Motion by the Hon. Cate Faehrmann agreed to:

1. That this House notes:

(a) Samantha Stosur’s spectacular victory at the 2011 US Open Tennis Championships, the first Australian woman to win a Grand Slam title since Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon in 1980; and

(b) Sally Pearson’s current status as World Champion in the 100 metres hurdles with a time of 12.28 seconds, who is one race away from a perfect season in this event after her nineteenth consecutive win.

2. That this House:

(a) congratulate both women on their achievements and commends them as inspirational examples of Australian accomplishment in women’s sport; and

(b) requests the President to write to both Samantha Stosur and Sally Pearson on behalf of the Legislative Council conveying the terms of this resolution.

-        Coalition deals with Fred Nile & Shooters

The NSW Government has secured deals with the extreme crossbench members of the NSW Parliament, according to Greens MP Cate Faehrmann. The Hon Rev Fred Nile and others are supporting the government’s move to shut down debate on a bill that will effectively cut public sector wages. This breach of NSW Parliamentary custom has not occurred since 1906.

“We now have a frightening wait to see what prizes the NSW Government has awarded the extreme Christian Democratic Party and the Shooters & Fishers Party for supporting them in shutting down the NSW House of Review,” said Ms Faehrmann.

“The Shooters & Fred Nile have an array of scary demands on government, such as removing a woman’s right to choose, banning same-sex adoption, hunting in National Parks and other extreme, last-century policies.

“I’m also worried about the status of the extremely important Proud Schools pilot program. We’ve had no indication from the new Education Minister what he intends to do there. I think it’s a safe bet Fred Nile doesn’t approve of this program that will reduce homophobic bullying in schools.

“In 1993, Fred Nile extended debate by filibustering on the legislation that improved protections for the gay and lesbian community, adding homosexual vilification into the Anti-discrimination Act. Today he helped shut down such a similar extended debate, and you can bet he didn’t do that for nothing. He’s an astute political operator and understands that nothing comes for free.

“Barry O’Farrell has dealt with these extreme parties to rush his attack on public sector workers through the Parliament without public scrutiny. Women, the gay and lesbian community and the environment will suffer because of this. It is truly disgraceful,” said Ms Faehrmann.

Media contact: Peter Stahel 0433 005 727

ABORTION

CATE FAEHRMANN [3.46 p.m.]: Today I draw the House’s attention to the hardships faced by women who seek an abortion in New South Wales. Not only does a woman’s right to choose abortion remain subject to criminal law in some circumstances but there are significant financial and other access barriers. The most significant barrier is the out-of-pocket cost of an abortion conducted in New South Wales before 12 weeks of pregnancy. Women are required to pay upfront between $255 to $525.The current out-of-pocket cost is between $175 and $300 after the women has received Medicare rebates. This is a substantial amount of money that creates significant barriers for many women.

A reproductive health service that is this expensive is out of reach to women receiving the Newstart Allowance, who get as little as $474.90 a fortnight, or someone earning the minimum wage of $15 an hour. This high up-front cost means that women on a low income will either have to borrow the money from family and friends or they will have to save the money from each fortnightly payment until they have the full cost saved. This means that those women are either being forced to disclose their pregnancy or they are having a termination much later than they would prefer.

After 12 weeks gestation the cost of an abortion continues to increase. For each week after 12 weeks the cost of an abortion increases by approximately $100. The maximum gestational age available in New South Wales is up to 20 weeks, by which time the cost can be as great as $2,000. Not only do these women have to make a difficult decision but financial and other pressures may require that they make the decision in a very short period. There are many circumstances where a woman is not able to get an abortion due to lack of access to comprehensive information before 12 weeks. The increased use of long-term contraceptives, such as the Implanon, which is inserted under the skin in a woman’s arm, can result in women having irregular bleeding or no bleeding. If the contraceptive fails, many women will not become aware of the pregnancy until after 12 weeks.

For women in rural and regional areas the costs are greatly increased. Though clinics in Tweed Heads, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle, Gosford and Wollongong provide abortion services, that is not much help for women in the areas of Bourke, Dubbo or Young. In addition, the majority of regional abortion services perform abortions only to 12 weeks gestation. On top of medical fees, women from regional New South Wales must also pay for transport and accommodation to get to a clinic. As a result, many women find they may have to take further time off work or further time away from their family. Of equal concern is the reality that many women will find that their budget may not stretch to allow a support person to accompany them to the clinic and assist them with their recovery.

Not only are clinics that offer abortion services limited but the number of doctors who are able and willing to perform the procedure is in decline. A major barrier for this is that doctors are not taught how to perform an abortion at medical school. The only provider of training in how to perform an abortion in New South Wales is the Preterm Foundation. Preterm is a not-for-profit organisation that provides medical students, nursing students and students from counselling and related fields training in best-practice pregnancy termination services.

Preterm also provides training for local and overseas doctors in termination procedures. This organisation exists for the benefit of women and to empower women to make a choice. It does not exist to make a profit from their need for a termination. The valuable training services provided by Preterm are filling the void left by lack of government commitment to this very important women’s health area.

I take this opportunity to also recognise the contribution of the Bessie Smyth Foundation, which between 2003 and 2006 operated statewide on a self-funded basis. The foundation provided a valuable all-options counselling, advocacy, brokerage and microfinance service for women. Despite extensive lobbying efforts and representation of an expression of interest to secure government funding in those years, this service had to cease service delivery in December 2006 as a result of a lack of resources. This has greatly reduced the services available to women in New South Wales. In addition to these financial barriers, women are still subject to stigmatisation for making choices about their futures. A significant step in reducing this stigmatisation would be removing abortion from the Crimes Act. It remains an offence in New South Wales to have an unlawful abortion. For an abortion to be lawful, it is required that a doctor considers that the abortion is necessary because the pregnancy is a threat to the women’s mental or physical health. It should be a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body. This is not the case in New South Wales as a result of both legal and financial barriers.

CATE FAEHRMANN [6.35 p.m.]: Today I speak on the increasingly widespread and worrying issue of mental health problems surrounding body image, nutrition and popular culture. Recently there has been somewhat disturbing speculation in the media that plus-sized models are promoting the obesity epidemic. Some may consider fashion and women’s magazines the most reliable source of information on this issue. However, I decided to look elsewhere to try to understand the dramatic increase of obesity, eating disorders and unhealthy dieting practices among women, girls and boys. These issues are becoming a serious public health concern due to their high prevalence and adverse effects on psychosocial and physical health.

Fashion models are no longer slim and have become gaunt. A size zero in the United States of America, which is a size six in Australia, is fashionable. I think I may have been a size six when I was six. Viewing these thin, idealised media images is a factor in the relationship between an individual’s body satisfaction and eating disorders such as obesity, anorexia and bulimia. The identification of risk factors that are shared between these weight-related disorders is an essential step to developing effective preventive methods for a more healthy population. “Healthy” means different things to different people. However, from a biomedical perspective “healthy” includes eating nutritious food, limiting alcohol consumption, not smoking and getting plenty of exercise.

Historically a woman was “healthy”, and consequently desirable, if she was curvaceous, which identified her as being able to bear children. However, society’s idea about what looks healthy has changed in the past 30 years, in line with a sharp increase in levels of obesity. Australia is a country obsessed with its weight. Perhaps it should be. The incidence of overweight and obesity has risen in line with the USA and the United Kingdom. We are amongst the fattest nations in the Western world, indeed the world. Paradoxically, at a time when more and more people are obsessed with diet, weight loss, body image or the thin ideal, we are at our most overweight. The thin ideal that developed from the 1880s to the 1920s was not only associated with a particular shift in fashion; it was a key turning point in how the bodies of women were appraised by men and experienced by women.

Societal pressure to be thin is thought to be a major contributor to the high levels of body dissatisfaction and eating disturbance in young women. This relationship is mediated by an internalisation of the thin ideal. Thin-ideal internalisation is the extent to which an individual “buys into” socially defined ideals of attractiveness and engages in behaviours designed to approximate these ideals. Those who have internalised the thin ideal have internalised also a belief system that associates thinness with positive attributes, such as happiness, desirability and status. Widespread body dissatisfaction among women, particularly with body shape and weight, has been documented in many studies. The findings of these studies add growing support to the idea of weight as a normative concept. High levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating generally are attributed to socio-cultural factors.

Current societal standards for female beauty emphasise the desirability of thinness, and thinness at such a level as to be increasingly impossible for most women to achieve. As images of the ideal shape presented in the media have become progressively thinner, women have become heavier. This contradicts media speculation that plus-size models promote obesity and it supports the idea that the increased incidence of eating disorders is more due to socio-cultural pressures. This culture of individualism has implications for the social lives of children and adults with eating disorders. Women and girls in postmodern societies are bombarded with messages from the media, parents and peers that the ideal body is one that is almost impossibly thin.

That is, in advertisements of products ranging from make-up to beer, the image of the successful and attractive woman is she who looks most like the dangerously thin models featured in popular magazines. In particular, fashion and beauty magazines have been accused of leading the charge in distributing the thin ideal. By failing to present a diverse range of body types, fashion magazines promote thinness as both the desired, and more insidiously, the prevailing norm for women. Implicit is the suggestion that a deviation from this thin ideal is abnormal. It is therefore not surprising that thin-idealised images featured in fashion magazines can affect girls’ and women’s own body image.

There are many factors that shape public attitudes toward obesity. But the term “obesity epidemic” is actually part of the problem, because if young people and women accept a popular cultural view of what a healthy body looks like they will have absolutely no idea what obesity truly is. The phrase became popular in medical journals in the 1990s and was readily adopted by politicians in the early 2000s. We talk about obesity as though it is a contagious disease, and young people are continuously exposed to images of supposedly healthy but dangerously thin models and find that they do not match up. Young women everywhere are asking themselves, “If I do not look like this am I obese? Am I an outcast?” What chance do young women in our society have of accepting their bodies when no-one is accepting them? The media tells women that they are ugly if they are fat and beautiful if they are thin; society tells them they are lazy if they are fat and successful if they are thin; and medical professionals tell them that too fat or too thin is dangerous. Meanwhile, multinational corporations encourage an unrealistic perception of beauty and health while simultaneously bombarding women with brands and slogans that promote eating unhealthy food. It is up to all of us in this place to do everything we can to change this dangerous descent into a culture that does not value what is actually healthy or beautiful.