Win for motel in sex worker case
Attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie has praised the Court of Appeal’s unanimous decision that overturned a sex worker’s previous win against a Moranbah motel as “a win for business”.
Managers of Moranbah’s Drovers Rest Motel, Joan and Evan Hartley, won an appeal against a sex worker’s Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling in a discrimination case after she was told she could no longer carry out prostitution in the motel.
The state government changed the Anti-Discrimination Act late last year making it legal for accommodation providers to deny people accommodation who they reasonably believe are working in the sex industry. The legal prostitute, who had been earning $2000 a day, was seeking $30,000 compensation and won her case last year in QCAT. Drovers Rest Motel appealed to the Court of Appeal, which last week unanimously overturned the QCAT appeal decision.
Speaking on behalf of the industry, the Accommodation Association of Australia said the ruling is likely to have broad positive consequences.
“While the focus of the decision was a motel in Moranbah in regional Queensland, there is a strong possibility that a number of other similar claims against accommodation businesses will now no longer proceed,” said the association’s chief executive officer, Richard Munro.
“This removes a lot of uncertainty for operators of accommodation businesses in Queensland – particularly in regional areas – and it means they can return to their principal aim of providing a tourism product that is of the highest possible standard. It has always been the position of the accommodation industry that the responsibility for making the decision about who is able to stay in tourism accommodation businesses should rest with the owner, operator, licensee or manager of the business.
“Pleasingly, the Queensland government has a similar position which was demonstrated by the recent changes that were made to the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act. The swift action by the attorney-general was a significant outcome for tourism and was warmly welcomed by our industry.”
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