WE ARE SCARLET ALLIANCE
Scarlet Alliance is the national peak body for sex workers and sex worker organisations in unceded Australia. Since 1989, we have been dedicated to advancing the rights, health, and safety of sex workers.
By sex workers, for sex workers.
Scarlet Alliance is a peer-run organisation, and we take pride in our work being done by sex workers, for sex workers. Every staff member, committee member and volunteer is a current or former sex worker, ensuring our advocacy, programs, and decisions come directly from lived experience.
As the national peak body for sex workers in Australia, our members include sex worker organisations and projects, and individual sex workers across Australia. Together, we create a powerful national voice that uplifts and defends the rights of all sex workers.
Our purpose.
Scarlet Alliance works alongside our member organisations to ensure the needs, experiences, and expertise of sex workers shape policy, practice, and community understanding at every level.
Our purpose is to:
- Advocate for the rights for all former and current sex workers, and end all forms of discrimination against us.
- Support our member organisations to achieve the full decriminalisation of sex work across unceded Australia.
- Represent sex workers in media and public events.
- Produce evidence-based, sex worker-specific sexual health and other resources.
- Support the capacity of sex workers to conduct peer education and advocacy.
Our work.
Scarlet Alliance’s work takes shape through a range of programs, projects and groups, each led by and for sex workers. Our work is grounded in our values of accountability, autonomy, collectivism, participation, solidarity and transformation. We fight for equality and social, legal, political, cultural, health and economic justice for past and present workers in the sex industry.
Policy & Advocacy
Scarlet Alliance influences national policy and supports the work of sex worker organisations across the country by advocating for the rights, health and safety of sex workers through lobbying, briefing papers, submissions and media releases. We are a leader in the national STI and BBV response, centring sex worker voices in policy-making spaces and ensuring our expertise shapes decisions that affect our lives.
Red Book
Red Book is Scarlet Alliance’s national STI and BBV resource, created by sex workers, for sex workers, providing trusted, evidence-based information on transmission, prevention, testing, treatment and skill sharing. First published as a physical book in 1998, Red Book has remained a reliable, evolving resource for over 25 years, shaped at every stage by the community it serves. Today it has grown into a suite of resources delivered online and in print, including Red Book Online and printed resources.
Red Learning Hub
Scarlet Alliance’s national training program builds the skills, knowledge and confidence of sex worker community members, advocates and peer educators across Australia. Designed and delivered by sex workers, for sex workers, Red Learning Hub sets the benchmark for best practice in community capacity building.
National Forum
The annual Scarlet Alliance National Forum brings sex workers together from across the country to strengthen community connections, exchange knowledge and practical skills, and engage in discussions on policy and current key issues affecting sex workers. The forum is a space for peer-led learning, advocacy and collaboration, reinforcing the collective expertise and solidarity of the sex worker community.
Migration Project
Scarlet Alliance has received a one-year grant (March 2026 – March 2027) to develop information for migrant sex workers on visa conditions and work rights, and support our member organisations in providing peer education and support for migrant sex workers.
Sex Worker Outreach Projects in Tasmania and Victoria
Scarlet Alliance runs the sex worker outreach projects in Tasmania (SWOP Tas) and Victoria (Vixen), providing peer education and support to sex workers. We are supporting Vixen to become an independent organisation in the future.
Advisory Groups
Scarlet Alliance convenes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sex Worker Advisory Group (ATSISWAG), the Asian Migrant Sex Worker Advisory Group (AMSWAG), and the Disabled and chronically ill Sex Worker Advisory Group (DSWAG) to ensure our work is informed by diverse lived experience.
Support us to fight for sex worker rights. Your donation makes a difference.
Scarlet Alliance does not receive flexible core funding, which means much of our work is either tied directly to project grants or self-funded. While our STI and BBV prevention work and new migration project are government funded, donations help us remain responsive and sustain the advocacy, policy and sector support work that falls outside funding scopes, keeping Scarlet Alliance vibrant, sustainable and able to meet emerging needs.
Scarlet Alliance is an incorporated association registered with the ACNC, with Deductible Gift Recipient status.
Our solidarity.
Scarlet Alliance stands alongside and within union, worker, women’s, LGBTIQA+, migrant, disability, people who use drugs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and people of colour movements and resistance, and is committed to working in solidarity with these and other movements that align with our objectives and values. We welcome organisers to contact us to endorse actions and campaigns.
Scarlet Alliance proudly collaborates with:
- Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL)
- The National Association of People with HIV Australia (NAPWHA)
- Hepatitis Australia
- ASHM Health
- Sisters Inside
- The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
- Human Rights Law Centre
- The National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
- Human Rights Law Centre
Our memberships.
Scarlet Alliance’s advocacy is strengthened by our place in national and international movements for sex worker, health and human rights. We are proud members of the Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW), the Global Network of Sex Worker Projects (NSWP), Health Equity Matters, the Australian Council of Social Service, LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, the Working With Women Alliance, the Australian Women’s Health Alliance, and No To Violence.
Our funders (should be H2).
Scarlet Alliance’s work is made possible by the funders who back specific, dedicated projects, including our STI and BBV prevention work and migration project. We’re grateful for their support and the impact it enables.
With gratitude to our funders:
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing of Australia
- Tasmanian Department of Health
- Department of Health, Victoria
- Red Umbrella Fund
- Department of Home Affairs
Explore the documents and policies that guide our work.
Governing documents
Strategic Plan 2021-26
Overview
Scarlet Alliance’s Strategic Plan provides the strategic framework and direction for our work over a five year period. It describes our visions and provides goals, objectives, and strategies for 2021-26.
Governing documents
Constitution
Overview
The rules that govern how Scarlet Alliance operates, including our membership, the structure of our board and organisational decision-making.