For Millie, being a sex worker in Queensland means having to break the law on a daily basis.
"Sometimes clients will ask, 'Are you here alone?' or 'Do you live alone?'. My answer to that is always 'no' — whether I'm there alone or not," Millie said.
Queensland sex worker advocacy group Respect Inc is meeting with the Queensland Law Reform Commission (QLRC) today to discuss decriminalising all forms of sex work.
The QLRC was asked by Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman to conduct a review of current laws and draft a decriminalisation bill.
The QLRC is accepting public submissions until June 3 and will report back to the minister in November.
Fear of police entrapment
Sex work is currently only legal in Queensland in licensed brothels or as a sole trader working alone.
Respect Inc organiser Janelle Fawkes said there was widespread consensus among Queensland sex workers that all forms of licensing on the industry must be abolished.
This is the approach taken by Victoria under the state's new Sex Work Decriminalisation Act, where the first stage of changes came into effect this week and the end of licensing will occur in December 2023.
Put simply, this means removing police from the equation – something Ms Fawkes said was initially recommended by Tony Fitzgerald in his landmark 1989 Fitzgerald Inquiry report into police corruption.
"And in fact, [they] head up the targeted entrapment activities against sex workers for very minor offences."
Respect Inc is concerned the constant fear of police entrapment caused stress and mental health problems for some sex workers.
Millie is well aware that choosing to work safely is technically a criminal act and police could come knocking at any time.
"I've been quite lucky – I'm in a quite privileged bracket of being an upper middle class CIS white woman so for the most part the police have left me alone so far," she said.
Millie said she had worked in several brothels around Brisbane, in Cairns and in Sydney as well.
"I've worked in a small co-op in Brisbane for a couple of years and the last few years it's just been private by myself," she said.
"My favourite way to work is definitely within the co-op setting… about four of my really close friends and I worked together in a hotel.
"The reason it's my favourite way to work is that I've got my friends there – it's way less isolating."
Co-ops 'just so much safer'
Millie also said it was a "lot cheaper, because at the time I wasn't willing to work from my home, so I was working in hotels".
"For me, that meant six nights out of a fortnight I was having to pay for a hotel room, which is so much money," she said.
"But this way, we would book a couple of two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartments between us and come and go as we organised, so we could share those overheads.
"We could make money because even though it's also illegal, we could get each other in on bookings – it was much more fun that way as well.
"Also, it's just so much safer, it feels so much safer.
"They refer to co-ops like that – at the moment under the laws we've got right now – as an illegal brothel."
Police corruption and misuse of powers
In its submission consultation paper, the QLRC acknowledged historical links between illegal brothels and police corruption in Queensland.
Adopting a Victorian decriminalisation model would mean no licensing checks on brothels or co-ops, and could even legalise street-based sex work.
Concerns were raised in Victoria that street-based sex work could impact on public amenity, but Ms Fawkes said she did not believe decriminalisation would lead to a rise in street workers.
"Police statistics in Queensland show that in the past five years there have only been six offences related to street-based sex work," she said.
"Now that's because the majority of people have moved into other forms of sex work, not because of the laws, but because of changes to technology and changes to how advertising and the sex industry works these days."
Constant threat of 'police harassment'
Respect Inc advocate and sex worker Candi Forrest said getting rid of all forms of licensing on the sex work industry would mean sex workers could operate without the constant threat of "police harassment".
"There's an overwhelming amount of data now that we're seeing about sex workers in Queensland that shows lots of harms to both their mental health and their financial stability, and the ways they want to engage with their businesses becomes impossible, when they're exposed 24-seven to this sort of risk or fear of entrapment by the police," Ms Forrest said.
“Throughout the negotiation for consent, they’re thinking they’re dealing with a client who’s going to be paying them and so then they maybe find out it’s actually a police officer and they feel like they’ve been violated."
A Queensland Police Service (QPS) spokesperson said the QLRC's request for submissions was "under consideration".
"As such, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage," the spokesperson said.
Ms Forrest said the stigma still hanging over sex work could only lift by changing the law.
"I think it's going to take decriminalisation to change it, but it won't change straight away, it's going to take some time," she said.
"I recall when [former Queensland premier] Peter Beattie tried to bring in a decriminalisation-type bill, before the Act that we currently have, it was rejected by the parliamentary committee on the basis that if they passed that it would allow gay brothels to open up.
"There was still a lot of stigma about gender and sexuality back then and that's hopefully changed a lot, but we still have a long way to go."
The Attorney-General told the ABC the Queensland government would take time to consider all views as well as the QLRC's recommendations.
"I support appropriate and modern laws that ensure the safety of sex workers and proper regulation, so the sex work industry doesn't operate in the shadows," Ms Fentiman said.
