Liberal MLA Giulia Jones will use information gathered during a controversial study tour to push for prostitution exit programs and new co-operation with federal agencies to stop the trafficking of women in Australia, according to The Canberra Times.
Following their recent tour of France, Sweden and Germany where they studied laws that make it illegal to pay for sex (at a cost of $35,000 to taxpayers) Giulia Jones has said we should not pretend traffickers did not target Australia, or that we had nothing to learn from Sweden in order to reduce the size of the sex industry.
“I don’t think we know 100 per cent where we are at in Canberra with this kind of thing,” Mrs Jones said on Monday.
“We have had cases of slavery here, and we’ve had at least one conviction. I will look into local Australian Federal Police advice and pursue a conversation [with members of the federal Parliament] about trafficking.”
One outcome of the trip was seen through the ACT Renumeration Tribunal, which abolished taxpayer funded study tours for MLAs.