Sex Work in New Zealand

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Michelle Cooke reports for [I]Fairfax NZ News[/I], 21 Jan 2012:

(report includes 2 minute video-tour of Fun House brothel in Wellington)

[url]http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6292753/Sex-conditions-safer-but-prostitute-stigma-remains[/url]

More than 10,000 condoms are delivered in 70 boxes to the headquarters of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective within a few minutes â?? in broad daylight.

It's a far cry from a decade ago.

Sex workers no longer have to hide condoms in freezers, and they can carry them without worrying that they could be prosecuted for soliciting, the collective's national co-ordinator Catherine Healy says.

It has been nearly nine years since New Zealand decriminalised prostitution under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003.

Sex workers say the stigma has eased, but still remains. Safe sex is freely promoted, they have a mandate to stand up to inappropriate behaviour from clients and employers, and whereas in the past they might have felt intimidated and threatened by police, they now work with them.

"New Zealand sex workers have the best set of laws. We've seen situations where sex workers have taken on brothel operators for sexual harassment and won," Ms Healy says. "You just couldn't have imagined that before."

The legislation is a model for other countries to follow, she says.

"I always felt it would happen, it was so logical but now I look back at it and think `God, how did we get that'? I really wish I'd been a sex worker right on the cusp of that change, because I used to think about it so much ... and to have worked on that moment would have been fantastic. I would have loved that empowerment."

Mary Brennan always knew she would work in the sex industry. She would sit in church as a girl, listening to stories about Mary Magdalene, pondering that if Magdalene was a prostitute then it couldn't be that bad. "I'm extremely passionate about this industry," the 50-year-old says.

"There's a lot of work to be done in this industry to make it safer and happier and more accepted and leading on from that I believe that it will be able to help other areas of society, like providing intimacy to people who can't get it themselves, like people who are seriously disabled â?? physically or intellectually."

Ms Brennan has managed brothels for 16 years. She owns and operates Fun House and the MM Club, which offers dominatrix services, from an obscure building in the heart of Lower Hutt.

She's always had a good relationship with police, but says trust between them and the sex industry has definitely improved.

Before the reform she was working as a madam at a Wellington brothel when it was involved in an armed hold-up.

"The receptionist had a sawn-off shotgun held to her head while two other girls were held in the lounge, with guns [pointed] to them, made to watch," she says.

"We were up all night at the police station. But no-one mentioned victim support or counselling for these girls because they were sex workers â?? it wouldn't have even crossed their minds."

Going to the police is quite a different matter now, Ms Brennan says. "They take extra care to make sure these girls go to Rape Crisis or are seen by Victim Support or are put in touch with the right agencies and that the girls are made to feel they've done nothing wrong."

The biggest change is that you can legally talk to workers about using condoms, she says. "Before the reform it wasn't legal to talk about it, even though we always did. If someone was a policewoman, for instance, you could be done for promoting commercial sex."

Tiana, who doesn't want her real name used, says police were particularly intimidating towards street workers and transgender people before the reform. Street workers are still hassled by the public and told to move on, but they can now call the police and ask for help, the 36-year-old says.

"[One man] said `They're not going to come, they've got better things to do', then two minutes later they [the police] come around the corner," she says. "We wouldn't have had that prior to the law change, so at least we know they're on our side."

She knew of one client, before the law change, who tried to cut a condom in an effort to have unprotected sex with her. She let the "girls" know by word of mouth, but says if it was after the reform then she would have immediately reported him to police.

Dorothy, another sex worker, is a 22-year-old university student studying towards her second degree. She earns up to $1500 a day working in the industry.

When the vivacious, confident and articulate Wellingtonian's father asked her what she wanted for her 21st birthday, she responded: "I want to tell you something and not have you freak out".

"His immediate response was `I thought you were going to tell me something really bad, so thank God'."

She started working at a strip club a couple of years ago and then built up the courage to go upstairs to the brothel. "I started at 12.30 that night and went home at 8am with $700."

Now working for Ms Brennan, or Madam Mary, she says most of her clients are as nervous as she is.

She's had some difficult situations where clients attempt to have unprotected sex or make her do something she doesn't want to do, but she quickly defuses the situation.

"I say `No, you can't do that but you could do this instead'. Sometimes I'll respond with humour and say `Yeah, I f..... love babies'."

Dorothy says it's important that a worker goes to the police if she has been attacked.

"I had a friend who was raped by a client a few months ago.

"She had a really positive experience with the police."

Field crime manager Detective Inspector Scott Beard says the relationship between the industry and police is no longer a "them" and "us".

"Police would occasionally target the prostitute for soliciting, but since the reform that's changed and our relationship, particularly with the Prostitutes Collective, is so much better. The police are seen as a protector."

Police adult sexual assault teams have formed since the reform, which has also resulted in more thorough investigations, he says. There have been several prosecutions of people who have allowed under-18-year-olds to work, Mr Beard says.

But while the law change has resulted in some positive changes, it has also had its downsides.

"Prior to the reform, police could just go in to the brothels at any time. Now we can only go in if we've obtained a search warrant."

There are still some bad practices, and sex trafficking does occur. "I think it's naive to think there isn't or hasn't been women trafficked through New Zealand," he says.

Without access to brothels, there is no way of knowing which ones are involved, and victims are usually brainwashed and too traumatised to seek help. Mr Beard would like to see mandatory signs for all brothels warning of trafficking and how to seek help, in multiple languages.

Another consequence of the reform is that a large number of small owner-operated brothels have opened, taking business away from the larger brothels. Ms Brennan says the combination of small brothels, internet dating and the recession has had a negative effect on business.

"From a business perspective the changes aren't good, because so many girls work privately. So it's much harder for massage parlours to get girls, they're screaming out for girls.

"But they're also screaming out for business, because internet dating has ruined the industry." Some internet dating sites list "looking for sex" along with "looking for a long-term relationship", or "networking" among their categories, Ms Brennan says.

"It's opened up dating for people who are sitting at home, lonely and bored and who in the old days would have rung up a massage parlour and bought themselves some company. Why would you pay a stranger if you can have sex with a stranger for free?"

Regardless, people are still paying for sex. Clients that see the 15 or so women, and one man, at Fun House specifically request sex workers from their website profiles, Ms Brennan says. Most brothels, however, would have a waiting room where the workers are on display for the client to choose.

Ms Brennan is proud of how she runs her brothel, but says other brothel managers aren't so nice.

"They're like mushrooms, they're kept in the dark and fed bullshit. They're told `You'll get more money with us and more work with us than you will anywhere else. If you leave us, you're literally out on the street'."

Dorothy says she was harassed by one brothel owner after speaking out about the workers' pay. "He singled me out, mildly sexually harassed me and threatened to fire me."

There needs to be a way workers can speak out about exploitative practices, anonymously, which collected in some sort of database, she says. But no-one has organised it because workers are worried their details will be made public.

"Getting involved in a collective organisation means some sort of public attention which puts girls off, understandably."

Ms Brennan says the problem with dodgy practices boils down to the stigma that still surrounds the industry.

"People say `Why do they put up with that' and it's because they don't know that there is anywhere else they can go."

If people are asked what they do, they wouldn't necessarily say they're a sex worker, she says. They might say they're a receptionist or nanny instead. "So there's no opportunity â?? none of that information is going to be shared, so she won't know how good or bad it is."

While positive changes have resulted from the reform, there is still a long way to go, Ms Healy says.

She says the general public would be surprised by who works in the industry. She knows of one woman whose job is listed as one of the "most trusted occupations", but she also works as a sex worker.

"She said, `So they trust that part of me but not the sex worker part of me but I'm the same person'.

"I've had a voice on the phone that has popped up a few times and it's quite hard for that person because they think, `Should I apply for this next job or will it be discovered that I was a sex worker in my past', because of the whole database of names which was collected historically," she says.

Police no longer record sex worker's names on a database, which has helped, but there will always be issues for people wanting to make a career change, Ms Healy says.

While the Government has decriminalised prostitution, it does not morally endorse it in law. A bill tabled by the Manukau City Council before the formation of the Auckland Council also threatens the industry, and is against the spirit of the act, Ms Healy says.

The new council has picked up the bill, which proposes to restrict prostitutes from working in certain areas within the city. It is at the parliamentary select committee stage, with a report on it due next month.

Sex workers say it would contradict the positive effects the reform has had on the industry.

They say there is still work to do to reduce the stigma, and that would be hindered if the bill was passed.

People used to tell Ms Brennan that the reform would enable sex workers to be open about what they do.

"I would always say to someone, `Well, do you have a daughter, a niece, a sibling. How would you feel if she came up to you and said yay, I just got a job as a prostitute'?, and that just changes their feeling because no-one wants that for their daughter," Ms Brennan says.

"Because whether she works in the worst parlour in town or for us, the thought of your daughter working as a sex worker is not what you want for her, and that will take a while to change."