Council officers want to resume paying private investigators to have sex in illegal brothels as part of gathering evidence in the bid to shut them.
Officers at the council say it is the only option because police and the State Government have abandoned enforcement action against illegal brothels.
Councils have been left to shut down illegal brothels using planning laws after police effectively stopped enforcement action.
In February, The Age reported that at least six councils — including Melbourne — were paying private investigators to have sex in illegal brothels to gather evidence of a breach of planning rules.
Councils were paying private investigators between $1500 and $3000 for each investigation. This included a billing fee for the investigator and expenses to cover up to three visits to a suspect premises. Illegal brothels typically charge between $100 and $150 an hour.
Melbourne City and Yarra councils dropped the practice immediately.
Now Melbourne has received complaints about a resurgence in big illegal brothels, employing up to 12 sex workers, in prominent locations such as Bourke and Elizabeth streets.
Council officers say there is no option but to resume the practice unless police or Consumer Affairs Victoria, which has the key role in controlling legalised brothels, begin to take enforcement action.
On Tuesday, councillors will vote on whether to give back the authority for council officers to pay private investigators.
Melbourne City’s planning chairwoman Catherine Ng said she would not support the move.
The president of the Municipal Association of Victoria, Dick Gross, said Consumer Affairs was a sleepy hollow asleep at the wheel.
“Nearly five months after this story first broke, local government continues to unreasonably find itself at the forefront of enforcement action against illegal brothels,” Cr Gross said.
Police superintendent Stephen Leane said: “The regulation of the industry, including addressing those operators who breach the regulatory framework, is a matter for Consumer Affairs Victoria.”
Police would not say how many enforcements they had been involved in since January.
Consumer Affairs Victoria said it had been involved in seven searches of illegal brothels in the last year, a similar response to that given in February, when the issue of illegal brothels became public.
One of the brothels that Melbourne City Council investigated in the past few months is near the Consumer Affairs Victoria’s offices at the intersection of Bourke and Exhibition streets.
