Nine women walk into a small karaoke room in Chinatown. It is sometime before New York, New York, but after Piano Man.
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This room has a low minimum spend, but the most exclusive suites cost at least $1700. The hostesses cost extra.
At first, venue management deny they have hostesses. Drinks are brought by waiters, and there are no signs of hostess service. But after a quiet word to security staff, the "girls manager" comes in.
"They're $80 an hour. Card is OK but cash is better," she says.
Soon after, the women come in, and we can select as many as we want. We ask for number six, who says she is a student from Shenzhen in southern China.
She does not speak much English, but manages to teach us a dice game. She dances and sings mostly Chinese songs (but Rihanna and Adele are also favourites).
Senior Sergeant David Sheppard from the liquor licensing taskforce Razon says these hostesses may be sex workers, and the force has intelligence to suggest some karaoke bars are fronts for illegal brothels.
The taskforce has pursued several bars for poor liquor licensing regimes, including having hostesses who get drunk while serving clients, but is yet to uncover clear evidence of sex work.
"They're employed by the venue ... to look after the patrons in the venue, and show them a good time.
"They pour them drinks for them, get food, make sure they're comfortable."
The women are vulnerable. Many of them do not speak English and are in Australia on 457 or student visas. Their work is not confined to Chinatown and the area around Little Bourke Street; police are increasingly concerned about bars in Box Hill, Springvale, Clayton, and suburbs in Melbourne's north.
Senior Sergeant Sheppard says he had an officer who spoke Cantonese and Mandarin, and another who spoke Japanese, but attending the venues undercover could prove difficult because caucasians were quite conspicuous in karaoke bars.
Perhaps that's why hostess number six offers little service other than ballads in Mandarin, as she sips on a Corona. Maybe if we ordered from towards the back of the drinks list, which includes an almost $6000 bottle of cognac, then other offers would be forthcoming.
The venue calls last drinks at 12:30am, but our hostess says she will be working until 4am. She claims to be paid only in tips.
The amount for hostess service is excluded from the printed receipt, but the cashier writes an amount separately in pen. There is a 20 per cent surcharge if cash is not paid for the hostess. She has disappeared down a corridor lined with small windows with views into the karaoke rooms.
Senior Sergeant Sheppard says the taskforce is breaking down boundaries with licencees.
"The venue is very scared and mistrusting of police, because [of] how police act in their country.
"Most of them are really good, it's the ones that have the hostess girls that cause a bit of alarm for us.
"We understand [sex work] takes place, but we've got nothing concrete. It's certainly something that we're looking at and we'll chase down those inquiries."
