Well, it's very interesting, because just a couple of years after their new law was brought in, they appeared for the first time on the TIP, trafficking in persons, report. They have been alerted in every report since that they have a problem with trafficking.
Here's what's really interesting. They claim they don't have a trafficking problem. In fact, I've seen from the sex workers organization that they're actually insulted at being told they have a trafficking problem. They reframe trafficking as a sex-work holiday, a wonderful opportunity for individuals to come to a beautiful location to work.
In fact, we have testimonies from sex workers in New Zealand who really feel betrayed. After all they put into it, they found themselves, as I said, lacking any agency. Really, the exploitation continued, but they had no recourse and no result because this was a legitimate business. Who was even looking for them? They certainly did not feel as though they could go and report to police.
Again, this comes back to why we can't even say our law creates harm, because it hasn't been implemented consistently in the country. There's a lack of training of police, a lack of public education. There has been no understanding of what's needed there. You can't claim harm from the law.
I do want to say that all of those harms exist, but we are laying all of those harms at the foot of this law when they more appropriately belong to many of our social services systems, definitely including child welfare. It throws children out on the street at age 19, and—guess what?—they end up in the sex trade. We know there are a lot of foster kids in the sex trade.
With regard to our health care system, indigenous people, LGBTQ people, and women in general complain that they are not treated well. They are discriminated against in medical treatments and in health care. For financial services, it's the same thing. We can't say that this law is causing harm—this harm and those harms—to sex workers.