CANBERRA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Forget Australia's mining boom.
The nation's strong economy, high currency and wages have made
it a magnet for sex, drugs and rock and roll.
Foreign sex workers, drug smugglers and global rock acts are
all targeting Australia to cash in on an economy growing at 3.1
percent when other developed nations are struggling to expand at
all.
The alternative boom has emerged as Australian average
full-time wages hit $72,500 a year, and with the Australian
dollar trading stubbornly above parity with the U.S.
dollar for the past two years.
That has made Australia even more profitable for fly-in and
fly-out rock acts and prostitutes, and especially for drug
traffickers who are taking bigger risks with the hope of
windfall profits.
"Offshore organised crime syndicates perceive Australia to
have a robust economy and to have been less affected by the
global financial crisis than other jurisdictions," said Paul
Jevtovic, the Australian Crime Commission's executive director
of intervention and prevention.
DRUG PROFITS
Australian police made 69,500 illicit drug busts in the year
to June 30, 2012, the highest in a decade, and have made record
arrests in the first six months of this financial year.
In recent months, police have intercepted drugs hidden in a
20-tonne steamroller and heavy machinery, in a large wooden
altar, and they have broken up a drug ring involving smugglers
in Australia, Japan and Vietnam.
One of the biggest smuggling operations was a failed bid to
bring in more than 200 kg (440 lb) of cocaine across the Pacific
Ocean from Ecuador on a 13-metre (40-foot) yacht, found grounded
on a small atoll in Tonga with a dead crewman aboard.
Australian police, who work closely with the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration and authorities throughout Asia and
the South Pacific, said the high prices paid in Australia and
the strong dollar all helped make the country attractive for
smugglers.
Crime statistics show why some are willing to risk up to 20
years in prison.
The Australian Crime Commission, which examines trends and
works closely with police agencies, said heroin and MDMA, also
known as ecstasy, sell for about eight times more in Australia
than in Britain and the United States, though Australia is a
much smaller market.
Crime Commission data given to Reuters shows a kilogram of
cocaine is worth about $2,400 in Colombia, $12,500 in Mexico,
and $33,000 in the United States.
The same kilogram of cocaine is worth $220,000 in Australia.
ROCK REVIVAL
Once a remote destination for big rock acts, Australia has
been flooded with talent over the past year and faces a steady
stream of musicians, including heritage acts, in 2013.
The strong dollar has made Australia the ideal place to
perform for musicians wanting to make money at a time when
touring rather than album sales is the main driver of income,
with many acts charging a premium in a cashed-up economy.
In the first half of 2013, Australia will see tours by Bruce
Springsteen, Pink, Guns N'Roses, Ringo Starr, ZZ Top, Thin
Lizzy, the Steve Miller Band, Deep Purple, Santana, Status Quo,
Robert Plant, Neil Young, Carole King, Paul Simon and Kiss.
The high ticket prices have upset some fans, who question
why an artist like Springsteen charges $220 for a premium ticket
in Australia, when the same ticket to the same show in
Connecticut in October cost $90.
"You can't tell me it costs more than double per head to
stage a concert here in Australia," said music fan Robin Pash,
who has just returned from the United States, where he saw
Springsteen and a series of acts for what would be considered
bargain prices.
Entertainment journalist Jonathon Moran, however, said the
higher prices reflected the higher cost in Australia, although
Australia's strong dollar did make it more attractive to perform
downunder.
"More people want to come here, and Australian audiences are
comparatively well off and can afford the tickets," Moran, from
Sydney's Sunday Telegraph, told Reuters.
SEX AND THE BOOM
Sex workers are also cashing in on the boom, particularly in
remote mining towns, where the world's oldest profession is the
latest to adopt fly-in, fly-out work practices. And more
overseas sex workers are heading for Australia.
A 2012 report for the government in the most populous state,
New South Wales, found a marked rise in the number of female sex
workers from Thailand, Korea and China since 2006, with 53
percent of sex workers from Asia and a further 13.5 percent from
other non-English-speaking countries.
The report, by the University of New South Wales, found a
median hourly rate of A$150 for sex services in Australia's
largest city of Sydney, although sex workers can charge double
that in remote mining towns full of cashed up men.
In the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie in the Western
Australia state, the Red House brothel, which has operated since
1934, advertises services starting at A$300 an hour.
Proprietor Bruna Meyers said women in her establishment
earned up to A$4,000 a week at a busy time, or about three times
the average full-time Australian wage.
"The girls who come here are mainly from over east (eastern
Australian states). They come in, sometimes for two or three
weeks at a time. Some are just girls who are travelling around
the world," Meyers told Reuters.
($1 = 0.9652 Australian dollars)
(Editing by Ron Popeski)