Thank you so much, and I think you asked a very important question. This is what we witness in the community every day, how sex workers are being harmed by the law. Why are they being targeted by the perpetrator? It's because they know the law does not protect them. They know the law is targeting them.
I have to very sadly say that [Technical difficulty—Editor] attend a Parliament meeting. One other thing I organize most is funerals. Every time I see the dead body of a sex worker, I ask why. Why do we still have this law? We know this law keeps killing people. We know the law makes it so the sex worker cannot work safely. When sex workers protect each other.... For example, some sex workers cannot speak English. The other sex worker helps them to communicate with clients. That sex worker is then put in jail, and the original sex worker has to work in a very vulnerable situation.
Why do we still do it? I really don't understand why so many people say.... Particularly, I see lots of people say it's not sex workers, it's not racialized, and it's not migrants. They keep saying that they know better than the community. If you really, really care about the exploitation and the safety of the worker, the answer is very simple. Repeal this law.
I have been working with a lot of sex workers in New Zealand. I have worked with a lot of support [Technical difficulty—Editor] country they have criminalized sex workers less. They are less vulnerable. They are able to seek help. The whole conflation of sex work and trafficking has increased policing and increased the vulnerability of the worker.
I really hope that, after this meeting, we will have a report that really reflects the reality of how this law harms sex workers and cannot protect them from exploitation, because many organizations—not only sex worker organizations but human rights organizations and violence against women organizations—keep telling you. We really hope the law can be changed, that no sex worker will die because of the hate of sex work, because this view provokes hate of sex workers. We remember the six Asian women murdered in Atlanta because the murderer said they wanted to eradicate sex workers.
When I hear so many people here say they want to eliminate sex workers, for me, this is no different. They die because of your hate of sex workers, but these are the bodies of sex workers. Whether you like it or not is your decision, but you do not have the power to exercise your power over other women. When you say that men should not use the bodies of women, I have to tell you: stop using the bodies of sex workers to benefit your career and to get more funding.
Sex workers keep telling you this law kills us. Sex workers say this law does not protect us. This is a very important message. I want you to hear this, and I also want all the people who advocate for the end-demand model of criminalizing sex work to hear this. You need to really think about what you are doing. We really don't want to see more sex workers killed.
Thank you.