Like they usually stop the car and have chats. The history of how this reform came about in New Zealand is fascinating. I wanted to know how sex workers are doing, twenty years on. Did the PRA fulfill its promise? Are work conditions better than they were before the reform? What still needs to be addressed?
And finally, is the New Zealand model catching on more broadly? We discussed all of this and more. Prior to , sex work itself was not illegal in New Zealand, but many related activities were, so that it was almost impossible to engage in sex work without committing a criminal act. Underage prostitution and coercive practices remain illegal.
It forbids ads for sex work on radio, television, in cinemas and print media except in classified ads , although brothels can advertise for staff. Local authorities can regulate the location and signage of brothels. Migrant workers may not engage in sex work, and can be deported if found out. The campaign to change the law began with the establishment of NZPC back in From the beginning, Catherine Healy, its founder, wanted to address the criminalization of the sector, as well as to provide sex workers with information and support on the growing threat of HIV and AIDS and on health overall.
A trip to the Australian state of New South Wales the only location to have decriminalized sex work at that time in provided the inspiration and the model, while a contract with the New Zealand Ministry of Health to provide sexual health information to sex workers began to establish NZPC as a trusted actor. I have to admit I am in awe of Dame Catherine as she is universally called , and of the soft-spoken clarity and determination of her vision.
She told me she was always confident that decriminalization would happen. Her confidence grew after conservative Maurice Williamson, then Associate Minister of Health, publicly expressed his support in the early s:. I think we always felt it was going to happen. It was obvious it needed to happen. Public sympathy was there with us. Headlines in the papers, daily newspapers on our side. Catherine Healy.
