The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective was established in 1987 by sex workers, and soon afterwards began lobbying for a change to the laws that were seeing us taken before the courts on prostitution related offences. Many of us knew firsthand the experience of being pulled out of our work, either from the street, or from massage parlours, and accused of soliciting in a public place, brothel keeping was also against the law and we could be sent to prison.
It was incredibly disruptive, and of course, a conviction for a prostitution related offence, was far reaching and impacted on not only our lives in the course of sex work, but also in other ways as well. For example, many sex workers worked in massage parlours and after a conviction for soliciting for the purposes of prostitution, it meant that we were banned from working in this part of the sex industry for 10 years.
The police documented our names and this sometimes interfered with ability to do other work. For example, some occupations require a police check and if it was discovered that we were, or had been sex workers it would mean that some occupational options would not be available.
The police would come in and pose as clients, to entrap us into offering them sex for money. They would return much later and arrest us. Sometimes it was difficult to remember which client they were.
New Zealand, like many countries at that time, was coming to grips with HIV prevention strategies. It had enabled a nationwide needle exchange programme and an organisation to work with men who have sex with men, and was keen to engage with sex workers. Our organisation, which was scarcely more than a small group who met informally, in bars, and on the beaches, and in our homes, was invited to enter into a formal contract with the Ministry of Health. Actually, we weren’t that tempted, as we wanted to retain our autonomy and we wanted to control our lives, and our sex work philosophies.
However, we felt the opportunity to engage with government may not come around again and we felt we could use this opportunity to educate government, and to enhance the well being of sex workers.
They were heady days indeed. We felt very empowered by our sex work and wanted to stare down the stigma. The Ministry of Health offered us a small amount of funding and in return, we described to them the kind of things we felt were necessary to be effective, if we were to prevent HIV/AIDS. This was long before web sites and the internet age that would develop during the 1990s. We established community drop in centres with the funding and of course a magazine to connect us together, along with outreach to sex work places. I’m sure this is all familiar to many organisations today.
The truly delightful thing was the merging of different populations: women, men, transgender, brothel based, street based, etc. All these different sex workers meeting at the community base was very invigorating. As we came out, part of our strategy was to speak to media and keep them focused on what mattered most to sex workers.
Mostly we didn’t disclose in those early days to media, that we were sex workers as we felt that the name of our organisation was explicit enough for them to make this assumption. Nevertheless, they would still want to know about issues related to our personal realities in sex work, whereas we wanted to talk about more general issues, such as unfair laws and workers rights rather than how many clients we were seeing and how much they paid.
We advocated for decriminalisation and brought many supporters on board from a wide cross section of society including major womens’ organisations such as the National Council of Women, the Young Womens’ Christian Association, and the Business and Professional Womens’ Federation. These organisations connected on the basis of human rights and the recognition that sex workers needed rights to protect them from exploitation.
Public health organisations recognised that decriminalisation was a sensible move towards improving occupational safety and health for sex workers. We found a Member of Parliament (MP) to sponsor a bill to support the law change. Tim Barnett the MP has remained committed to the decriminalisation of sex work and was most recently working with sex workers in South Africa, supporting them to achieve this goal. Having politicians onside is incredibly important for sex workers. In 2003 the Prostitution Reform Act was voted in by parliament and sex workers are now covered by legislation. This legislation aims to safeguard our human rights and protect us from exploitation while utilising labour laws to promote our welfare and occupational health and safety.
In addition these laws are conducive to public health enabling frank displays of safer sex information in sex work venues. The law sets important boundaries and prohibits the use of people under the age of eighteen in prostitution.Sex workers and the police appreciate these laws which foster better relationships and create an environment whereby sex workers can more readily report violence or other crimes committed against us. Sex workers, including those who are street based, working in managed brothels or working alone or with our peers from home, feel more able to refuse clients, a strong indication that decriminalisation enhances our safety.
There is no substantiated evidence of trafficking despite repeated efforts by the immigration department to locate victims and traffickers. Nor is there evidence that young people are being induced and compelled into sex work by thugs. There is some way to go with reducing stigma, which can act as a barrier to speaking out about abuse. However, a recent case in the courts highlighted that the balance of power has indeed shifted to support sex workers address exploitation. A corrupt police officer was sent to prison for attempting to use his authority to extort free sexual services from a sex worker in exchange for ignoring her traffic infringements.
“Decriminalisation gives me options. Basically I can work wherever I want. Although there are parameters around this it gives me lots of freedom to determine my own conditions. I’m self employed as a sex worker, I did a bit of brothel based work with a brothel operator but she was so controlling so I decided to leave and manage my own sex work from home. I think it’s good that the law allows me to do that.” – Angela
“For me, decriminalisation means workers rights and legal protections. It means that if a manager is being a jerk I can hold them to standards, if a client is asking for things I don’t do I can point to the rules, and that I can be confident that I will not to be harassed by police for the work that I do. It also means I can talk about what I do.. social stigma still exists, but because this is legitimate work now I think that social acceptance is growing and we know that we don’t have to hide for fear of the law. I don’t have to worry about losing my kids for the job that I have. Ironically, we were legally meant to pay tax on sex work before the law actually recognised our work, before we had any legal protections under employment law or labour rights laws. Now we have the same rights as workers in any other industry.” – Cleo
NZPC sometimes support sex workers to take on brothel operators who may not have sex workers best interests at heart. Some avenues which are available include mediation, hearings inside of the Labour Department, or a simple process through the disputes tribunal to recover money which is often at the heart of disputes between sex workers and brothel operators. There have also been sex workers who have countered other practices that they object to, such as sexual harassment in the work place from brothel operators.
It was inconceivable before the law change, that these sort of issues could be addressed with the support of the government agencies. Of course there is still a need for further law changes such as protection from discrimination. Some City Councils have introduced by-laws which prohibit sex workers working from residential areas, while allowing other home based occupations. It is also against the law to emigrate to New Zealand with the intent of being a sex worker.
As we celebrate the 10th year of decimalization we reflect on all our gains and the positive things it has delivered. There is a significant body of research to support our lived experiences that decriminalization of sex work is good for everyone.
