Moranbah motel wins appeal against a discrimination ruling for sex worker who was told she could not work on the site THE ATTORNEY-General says a Court of Appeal decision allowing a Moranbah motel's appeal against a sex worker is "a win for business and common sense." Operators of the Drovers Rest Motel at Moranbah today won the case, overturning a tribunal decision last year which found they had discriminated against the legal sex worker by denying her a room. "Common sense prevailed today with the Court of Appeal setting aside that Queensland Civil and Administrative Appeal decision," Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie said. He said he had joined the motel owners' fight in the Court of Appeal, as a "friend of the court," because he supported business owners' ability to decide about what does or does not occur on their premises. The State Government recently amended the Anti-Discrimination Act to allow hotel and motel operators to refuse sex workers accommodation or evict them if they had reasonable belief they were operating a business from their premises. "If someone is running a business out of a hotel or motel room and the operator or manager received complaints from other patrons, they should be able to do something," Mr Bleijie said. In 2011 the legal sex worker, who had been earning $2000 a day during sporadic visits to the Drovers Rest, lost the first round of her discrimination case against the motel. The court heard that on June 28, 2010, the sex worker known as GK, who had stayed at the motel for prostitution purposes over the previous two years, was told she would have to stay elsewhere in future. Motel owner Joan Hartley told her she was not going to allow prostitution in her motel. After losing her discrimination claim, GK, who had been seeking $30,000 compensation, then won the internal appeal in QCAT and motel owners Dovedeen Pty Ltd appealed to the court. The tribunal member who first rejected the sex worker's case found GK had not been refused accommodation because she was a sex worker, but because the motel owners did not want prostitution in the Drovers Rest. The Court of Appeal yesterday found discrimination on the basis that she was a lawfully employed sex worker was prohibited, but discrimination on the basis that she proposed to perform work as a sex worker at the motel was not prohibited. Justice Hugh Fraser said in her own evidence GK said she had not been refused accommodation in her own capacity but because "she was performing the work of a sex worker at the motel." By a majority of two the appeal court decided the decision would still use the pseudonym of GK for the sex worker, although Justice Margaret Wilson dissented.