Sure.
I am a layperson—as we all sort of are—working on these issues by default because I am a sex worker and it applies to me. My friends have also died. I'm with Melissa. This is not a joke for us. This is not about ideology. This is supposed to be about the safety of my community. This is why I struggle with some of this.
From what I have read of it, the New Zealand prostitutes' collective worked really hard with all stakeholders, including police. They came up with a legal framework that would work to protect people from exploitation and try to ensure that business operators had the tools they needed to ensure they were being fair in the way they were treating their employees. They came up with the Prostitution Reform Act.
Shortly thereafter, there was a bit of a surge in numbers of registered massage parlours/brothels or whatever you want to call them. That has sort of trailed off over time. Many people think it's easy to open up a sex industry business. It is not. It is gruelling, horrible work with late hours. By horrible, I just mean late hours, no time to cook for yourself, being tired all the time and those kinds of things.
There was an initial sort of surge in numbers of registered places, but that has trailed off a bit. As well, estimates of the number of sex workers in New Zealand have become more clear and were actually lower than what they thought.
The same thing applies with youth who are at risk of being engaged in sex work. They've had a lot of success in being open with business operators and sex workers generally to find youth who are at risk and intervene before youth in those positions are exploited. They've also been able to redirect resources towards better support for youth.
In this country, we should know better than anyone else that we need to do better for youth and provide them with choices, so they don't land in a situation where they feel like this is their only option. There's been no discussion of that in relation to these laws. It's only about once they've been exploited. Well, can we do a little prevention?
I think one thing that is the most important and key about New Zealand is that they're talking to one another. They're identifying issues as they arise and trying to deal with them as they go forward. Some municipalities, for example, have been really reticent to adopt the law in its entirety and have created no-go zones and things like that. That works counter to the intention and the purpose of the law, which is, in part, to prevent exploitation of sex workers and children in New Zealand.
I hope that is a bit of an answer. It is quite a comprehensive report, so I will definitely table the executive summary for the committee to consider.