What the NZ model cheer squad get wrong

I’ve spent a lot of time following the ‘debate’ on how to regulate and manage sex work. The argument over whether the Nordic model of criminalising clients or the New Zealand model of decriminalisation of buying and selling should be adopted. Both the Nordic model mafia and the NZ model cheer squad hold up what happened in New Zealand after decriminalisation as an example to support their arguments. Unfortunately, both have got what happened wrong.

I’ve already written about what the Nordic model mafia have got wrong. I’ll put a link. And if I’m honest, I’m pretty sure they know what they’re saying is wrong. They know they are deliberately distorting the facts about sex work in New Zealand to further their dogmatic ideology of ‘sex bad, men bad, women powerless victims.’ I see the Nordic model mafia as the very embodiment of the patriarchal “sit down and shut up, we know what’s best for you” approach to feminist issues. Always the way with ideologically driven zealots.

NZ model v Nordic model, a rebuttal.

Now, unlike the Nordic model mafia, I do not believe the NZ model cheer squad are deliberately misrepresenting what happened in New Zealand after the Prostitution Reform Act was passed in 2003. I think they’ve become so accustomed to how sex work has to be carried out under a regime of criminalisation they can’t imagine it being any other way. They talk about gaining employment rights and forcing brothel owners etc to behave like any other employer. They just don’t see the wonderful change decriminalisation wrought here.

Next year will be the twentieth anniversary of the passing of the PRA, so we’ve had two decades of decriminalisation here. More than enough time to shake out the bugs and see how works in practice. I remember when it was passed, how everyone talked just as the NZ model cheer squad talk now. How we’d get employment rights, sick leave, holiday pay, fair treatment by managers and owners. Well twenty years on, we have none of those things. But what we do have is so much better.

So what went ‘wrong,’ why didn’t we get all those employee benefits? And, perhaps more importantly, what did we get? To understand you have to have to understand how the sex industry worked before decriminalisation, the industry model or paradigm as it’s called. Before there were ‘massage parlors’ and ‘escort agencies’ which almost completely dominated the industry. There were some independents, mostly male and trans workers, those who the brothels and agencies wouldn’t employ, the ones prejudice and bigotry excluded from the ‘safe’ brothel system. You also had those who were willing to accept the risks of being an independent so they didn’t have to put up with the exploitation of the brothels. But the independents were always the fringe.

I was one of those independents. It was not exactly a fun existence. We were forced to work on the street or to find some slumlord who would look the other way for a bit of extra cash or maybe a freebie whenever they felt like it, actually usually it was both. A hand to mouth existence. You were constantly at risk from violence and abuse. Both from the clients and the police. I remember it, working on the street. You saw a police car, you RAN. And I mean literally ran. You got up on your feet and ran as hard as you could so they didn’t catch you. If they caught you it meant a night in the cells, any money you had on you would disappear and you’d leave in the morning covered in bruises.

Before decriminalisation, working outside the established brothel and agency system meant you were in constant danger of arrest, violence and abuse. If you were a sex worker and you wanted to be safe, you had no choice, you had to work in the ‘system.’ And those who controlled that system were very well aware of the power it gave them. Unsurprisingly, they used that power to exploit the workers. All those things the Nordic model mafia say are evil about pimps and brothel, they stem from that power. If you make it so you have to work in a brothel or agency to be safe, you give those running them immense power over the workers, and they will use that power. Make no mistake, force sex workers to work in some kind of controlled system to be safe from arrest, you will get abuse and exploitation. No ifs, no buts, no maybes, you will get it. Pretty damn obvious if you think about it for even a moment

Under the brothel system, the workers were officially classified as self employed independent contractors. Casual workers not employees. This is not an uncommon thing, happens in lots of industries. But only in the sex industry was every worker an independent contractor. And under criminalisation, it’s another those ‘it has to be that way’ thing. It has to be that way so the police can tell the moralistic members of the public they’re tough on vice without the owners getting arrested. It allows the police and owners to run a ‘nod nod wink wink’ system. Have the police to arrest a worker or two occasionally in an entrapment operation and not have the owner go down for brothel keeping at the same time. Do it any other way and the whole ‘non nod wink wink brothel system’ you always get with criminalisation falls apart. And if it falls apart, you’d have to deal with the fact you can’t stamp out sex work and the police end up chasing hookers rather than murderers. That’s also why the police went after the independents so hard, hitting them looked good for the public and didn’t risk the brothel system Collapsing. Reinforced it in fact.

Thing is though, when you criminalise sex work the industry HAS to work that way, it’s the only model which is sustainable. Same applies with legalisation, you have to work in the ‘system’ to be safe, and those controlling the system will exploit the power this gives them. The Nordic model is of course even worse. It removes the ‘safe’ option for sex work. It throws all sex workers under the same bus as independent workers are under with criminalisation or legalisation. As is often said, it is simply the worst way to go. Distressing when criminalisation is the better option.

So, what happened when we introduced decriminalisation? Something totally unexpected. The paradigm shifted and it shifted radically. The brothels and agencies got wiped out, they were forced out of business. Nobody predicted it. But why did it happen? Despite decriminalisation, the casual independent contractor model for brothel work stayed. The owners had no reason to change it, there was a lot of very good employment case law from around the world saying this was legal and changing would both increase their costs and reduce power over the workers. So they didn’t change it. Decriminalisation however meant you could work outside the brothel system without fear of arrest of police harassment. Suddenly independent work was every bit as safe from arrest as the brothel work. The PRA also includes a provision allowing up to four sex workers to work out of a single location and share the costs equally without a license. Only restriction is all have to control their income independently, you can’t pool the takings and share them out. Gives the safety benefits of a brothel without the exploitation of a manager. Of course this means you’re self employed, with all the issues that brings, but without half your income going into somebody else’s pocket, you can put aside for those things.

Now for the first time, brothel workers had a choice. They no longer needed the brothels and agencies to be safe from arrest. They could stay on in the brothels as self employed independent contractors, with the owners taking around half of what they earned and imposing shift fees, late penalties, controlling their shifts to keep them from complaining, pressuring them to take clients they didn’t want etc. Or they could cut out on their own as an independent worker, maybe get together with a couple of other workers and form one of those new fangled small worker collective brothels. Of course that meant facing the perils of self employment, but they were being treated as self employed in the brothel system anyway. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority elected to cut out on their own. The old brothel system very simply collapsed as the workers found they no longer needed it’s protection. The entire industry paradigm changed. The sex industry in New Zealand is now dominated by independent workers and small worker collectives. Before 2003 there were over 400 hundred brothels and agencies in New Zealand, there are 45 left.

We didn’t get all those cool employment rights goodies because decriminalisation forced the people who could have given them to us out of the industry. Or more precisely, the power the PRA gave to workers allowed us to force them out. The workers voted with their feet. Even if they hadn’t, even if the workers had stayed in the brothels and fought to be recognised as employees, it would have taken a hell of a lot of years and hard work to do that. In the words of one friend who worked in the old system “F that!” Of course the change didn’t happen overnight. It took years for the paradigm to shift, but by 2010 the brothel system was gone. Most sex workers are now self employed independents, and sadly self employed people don’t get sick leave and holiday pay.

So what did decriminalisation give us? Power and control over our own lives, plus police protection. The PRA ripped away the power of the pimps and brothels by making it safe to work outside them. The Nordic model mafia love to crow about all they claim their pet dogma will achieve, wiping out pimping and brothels, making sex work safe for the workers. Well eventually sometime in the future, no idea when, but the miraculous Nordic model will do it. Hasn’t yet but one day it will. Guess what, the NZ model achieved everything they claim the Nordic model will, and did it in less ten years. We got to control when, where, how and with who we work. We never had that under the brothel system.

Decriminalisation did more too, it took away police harassment and gave us police protection instead. Well most of us, those in collectives and the independents at least. The only ones who had trouble with getting police protection were the workers still in the brothel system. Owners and managers all too often really weren’t keen on their workers reporting abusive clients. Bad for business I guess. You can not imagine how much of change that is. Well over half the risk involved in being a sex worker gone right there. Now we only have clients to worry about, kitty cats compared with the police. If we see the police now, we don’t run away from them, we run too them. And if a client crosses the line, they get arrested, prosecuted and convicted. Happens fairly often now. Frankly, given what we did get, all those employee rights would’ve just been the cherry on top. Yeah bit off a bugger we didn’t geet them, but more than happy with what we did get.

Of course it’s not perfect here, far from it. To start with, we’re stuck with the uncertainties of being self employed. And those who work in the handful of brothels left? While they still have to deal with managers taking a huge cut, shift fees etc, things are better for them. They do have employment rights. Managers can’t exploit them as badly as they used to and they do get convicted for abusing workers. One got done recently for sexual harassment. Things like late penalties are gone, and workers have more control over their shifts. However, not many kiwis left in the brothels. Our own Nordic model mafia forced a section, section 19, into the act leaving migrant workers even more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse than we ever were before 2003. So the brothels employ them now, and they suffer because of that section the Nordic model mafia forced on us. How did they get section 19 included? The PRA passed by one vote. Right before the bill was to go for its final vote one MP demanded section 19 be include or she’d vote no. It was the pound of flesh she demanded to pass the act. We’re trying to get it changed, get rid of that damn section, but that’s going to be another long hard fight.