Late on Friday, the Queensland Law Reform Commission released its report on consent, deciding not to update the criminal code to define non-payment of fees for a sex worker’s service as rape.
Australian sex workers have had their bank accounts closed without explanation. Their attempts to set up merchant services have been refused, and they are also being barred from pay services like PayPal.
Now, advocacy groups say clients are disputing charges and refusing to pay sex workers for services at an increasing rate. It’s a problem which raises big questions around consent and rape.
How common is this?
Estelle Lucas is the founder and spokesperson for Red Files, an online not-for-profit organisation that works toward the prevention of violence and exploitation of sex workers. Lucas told Crikey there had been an upward trend in clients attempting to not pay for services.
“[Clients] may change one number of the account details so it looks fine at a glance, they might schedule the payment for a future time and then cancel it, or they might call up the bank and say the payment is fraudulent,” she said.
Lucas believes the reason for the uptick is due to a lack of punitive action.
“When sex workers go to the police and nothing happens, it enables predators. Once predators have a system that works for them and there hasn’t been any intervention by society, it gives them the green light to keep doing it.”
Sex worker Christine McQueen told Crikey that her agency had been targeted up to 10 times in one year. In her case, the banks reached out to her about the dispute requesting paperwork.
“The bank let us know there had been a chargeback and they were going to investigate it,” she said. “We’re all over it and [we] get in ASAP because if you leave it too long, they’ll just refund the transaction.”
What can a sex worker do?
Aside from disputing the chargeback with the banks, workers can take either the criminal or the civil route against nonpayment by going to the police or civil administrative tribunal.
Lucas said she was aware of police refusing to take action and dismissing cases as a financial dispute.
Paul* took the legal route when a client refused to pay.
“The case never made it to the tribunal because as soon as the client received the paperwork, they paid,” he told Crikey.
Both options are time-consuming and require the sex worker to provide their real names and other personal details, outing themselves in their profession — something many are reluctant to do.
Similarly, if a sex worker hasn’t been complying with business and sex work regulations — of which there are many, ranging from not being able to work from your home in Victoria and getting local planning council approval to work in a particular place in NSW — their case may not be accepted.
“You need receipts and the [Australian Business Number] has to be on the invoice,” Paul said. “That I suspect is the biggest barrier.”
In McQueen’s case: “I didn’t have the time to take legal action … You’re hemorrhaging money on top of being robbed,” she said.
Is fee reversal tantamount to rape?
McQueen believes fee reversal is “absolutely” rape, though a different kind from women who have been attacked.
“Rape is a strong word, but there are degrees to it,” she said. “These guys know what it is, and I think for them it’s part of the deal. That’s why they wanted it … They knew in a million years I wouldn’t have consented without payment.”
Sex Work Law Reform Victoria spokesperson Lisa Dallimore echoed these sentiments.
“It’s not uncommon for clients to pay for sexual services only to later dispute the payment with the payment processor, resulting in the money being refunded back to the client,” she said.
“[This] amounts to exploitation of sex workers … If payment is withdrawn or reversed after sexual services have been provided, issues of consent arise. This could be considered rape.”
Dr Rachael Burgin, a lecturer at Swinburne Law School and chair of the Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy Initiative (RASARA), told Crikey the law was ineffective at dealing with these kinds of issues.
“In every jurisdiction the definition of consent and issues around it are different,” she said. “Most states have a list or set of circumstances when people can’t consent.”
RASARA is pushing for a reversal of fees for sex work to be added to the list of circumstances. “Revoking payment would vitiate the consent given,” she said.
The role the banks play in this is interesting, she added: “while I wouldn’t say they’re complicit in rape, they’re complicit in fraud”.
In Victoria, an inquiry is currently underway into the decriminalisation of sex work.
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
There is an old blokey saying “always pay a prostitute.”
I am not sure what it really means but if it’s anywhere close to what I think it means, then not paying someone for services who desperately has fallen on hard times, then it’s a good one.
I did n’t know prostitution was still a criminal act. After all, it’s still the oldest profession in the world. I even seem to recall the divine blessing of Rahab, a prostitute who hid the Hebrew spies and saved the whole ancient Hebrew Nation from annihilation. She, a prostitute was considered righteous.
Anyway, I would be more concerned with how these girls/boys find themselves in this situation in the first place. The same with DV. What drives a husband to act violently against his wife and kids but the shear desperation of unemployment, lack of adequate housing, clothes on their back and food in their mouth – the general sense of falling down. Tracking back to root cause is always a good place to start – govts.
I would gladly share a meal with a prostitute than an msm presstitute.
Great piece Amber. Just like those mental health articles a while back you show your heart for the voiceless ones and those who find themselves at the pointy end of the stick.
Our friends the Banks are up to their eye balls in this. Fully conscious of their own complicity in rape and fraud. No surprise there.
Perhaps it is the obsession of identity politics these days but non payment can be pursued in terms of a breach of (a basic commercial) contract. There is the aspect of legality of objects so one would-be crim cannot sue a another would-be crim for failing to appear on the appointed night (for loss of earnings or whatever).
In NZ there would not be a problem. However acts and criminal acts have a specific (1) definition and (2) hence meaning. Monkeying with the definitions to solve a problem that has, in principal, already a legal solution is plainly idiotic. Moreover, such a suggestion invites the perversion of the language as Sweden discovered the hard way.
I read it as breach of contract, too.
Sex workers can be awesome, but this article is way off beam.
Lack of payment must never be considered a sex crime. It is no different from other fraudulent business activity that routinely occurs with payments of electricity bills, buying clothes and other mainstream consumer articles.
Rapists rape and then don’t pay. The payment is irrelevant, a rape has been committed whether payment was made or not. Rape has nothing to do with providing or not providing cash.
Why should it be a criminal offence not paying for a commercial service – it is a commercial transaction
on the personal service level – like a cleaner, gardener, taxi service or more like Uber.
It is no rape or sexual assault – perhaps in the old days the pimps wouldn’t let the customers get away with non payment – but now it is merely commercial credit card transaction – is Afterpay available or Zippay :-). ?
The matter concerns one of redefining a common understood noun Desmond. That there ought to be a right to pursue non-payment for a service is a given. In the case of a hooker in Australia there is the issue of ‘legality of objects’ but, as I have stated, the issue would not present itself in NZ.
Obviously Erasmus, Desmond Graham and the “Bonk”sheer have more experience with the “Hookers” than what I do.
But “Hookers” actually provide an invaluable service to the whole community. A hidden value. Where would all those men with deformities and disfigurements go for some attention and extra curricular? Burns victims? where do they go? Those with emotional and psychological issues, where do they go?…to a “Hooker”.
What about unemployed men? No normal woman wants to make out with a down on his luck unemployed no prospects, no hope, no brainer type guy. But a “Hooker” will.
Can we calculate how many people “Hookers”have saved in the community by providing some much needed relief for those discarded types who might beat up on us, attack us and even rape and murder us because of pent up anger and animosity for the years of rejection.
So Boys, please consider all these things before expressing your lack of support for these saviors of the community.
Upon my reading of the replies to this article, KU, no contributor has undermined the social (ameliorating) services that are provided and indeed have been provided for millennia. After all, it isn’t clear as to whether the law is the oldest profession or the second oldest profession.
Itaque illud semper (an appeal to my school Latin of some decades ago)
And so it will always be, Erasmus..I kopish. So what about cutting some slack for these girls/boys.
Yuz made an issue regarding contract payment or some sort of breach of contract. How can “Hookers” afford the time and cost of contract disputes in a court of law. Their chosen profession is not even legal and these heartless “men” know this and know they can get away without paying on a technicality.
So Boys, pay your bills and maybe even leave a small extra tip on the way out next time. A crayfish should do it.
As I conveyed previously, KU, the posts on this page are in agreement with your sentiments albeit expressed in terms of the law of contract.
Perhaps cash “up front” may be an option (I really would not know) but, I’m sorry to say, even some members of the public attempt to avoid (e.g.) taxi fares.
Perhaps some Uber-style electronic – internet collective might be an option for the industry post the trade becoming legal as it is in NZ.