BISHOP William Morris of Toowoomba has publicly spoken out against an application before the city council for permission to open a brothel.
The brothel would be opened in the suburb of Wilsonton under State Government legislation enacted last year which allows brothels in certain areas and with conditions.
But Cr Peter Wood, who chairs council’s planning committee, said the application would be rejected for a number of reasons.
He said he could not say what might happen in relation to another application for a brothel, lodged on March 16.
On March 10, the city’s combined Churches issued a joint statement in which they said they believed Toowoomba was a unique community and that Premier Peter Beattie should allow it to regulate brothels without being limited by state law.
On March 17, as the row escalated, Bishop Morris made an independent statement in Toowoomba’s daily newspaper, The Chronicle.
Opening a legalised brothel in the city was a “deceptively complex issue”, he said.
“While we as a Christian Church may have strong beliefs and convictions around the different elements of the prostitution issue, we cannot expect that our values will be the sole determinant of government policy and practice, nor the sole guide to community behaviour.”
But Bishop Morris said the Church also had every right to offer its view, which included recognition of and active support for government to enact legislation which it judges to be in the community’s best interest.
