According to the results of last year's Census, there are 60, presumably exhausted, sex workers servicing the entire country. As the Justice Ministry described it, calculating the true number is "about as difficult as counting glow-worms in a cave". Estimates vary from as few as 2, to over 15,, and everything in between. Even the normally eagle-eyed taxman has no idea, lumping sex work into hospitality or special services.
You might as well take a tape measure to classified ads in the paper, says Catherine Healy, national co-ordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective. A review committee five years on from the law change suggested the reform had little impact on the number of people working. While the numbers fluctuate slightly from year to year, Healy says "our feeling is that it's pretty much the same". It is just as difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to average incomes. The common complaint from every sex worker is that they're not making enough money.
Self-employed Wellington sex worker Eva, not her real name, says the lull in business is a hot topic amongst her colleagues. Eva bumped into two Kiwi girls who had made the same move, but even the Sydneysiders were complaining of a lack of custom.
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As it turns out, the main grumbles these days are not exploitation, violence or trafficking of which there has never been a substantiated case here. Instead, they're mostly mundane employment issues. Those are the same problems faced by a lot of industries," says Healy. The idea that people are being coerced into prostitution is inaccurate, she says. It's very much that for sex workers. The biggest change since the reform has been more people managing their own sex work, with flexible working hours.
Eva has an ordinary office job, and pops out for a "long lunch" when she's seeing clients. Ideally she would see one client per day, but says she typically gets three or four a week. It's enjoyable, as far as work goes - as Eva puts it; "I'm not there to have orgasms". Ironically, promiscuity could prove to be the biggest threat to the prostitution industry. Over the last 15 years, the internet age has seen free, no-strings-attached sex become much easier to arrange.
Online dating sites like NZDating and Find Someone boast more than , and 80, members respectively. In recent years, location-based smartphone app Tinder, which is mostly associated with casual sex, has also become enormously popular. Eva says it has been especially hard for her friends serving the gay community, where hook-up culture has a longer history and is even more socially acceptable.
She reckons most gay men in Wellington are on Grindr, the Tinder equivalent, and it's only older non tech-savvy types who still turn to the newspaper classifieds. Of course, the disruptive nature of the internet cuts both ways. As Eva points out, it is now much easier for freelancers to advertise cheaply and efficiently. One of her friends was deluged with friend requests a day after setting up a Facebook page advertising her services. The industry is also starting to make much more innovative use of technology.
Users can sort by hair colour, body shape and "service requirements" to organise a meeting with someone in their area. Workers get detailed analytics on the hits they get, including what time of day traffic is highest, and which locations are working best. While the industry is changing rapidly, she says some are always constant - like the taxman. Even 19 years ago, the IRD was distributing printed forms to sex workers, neatly laying out what they could and could not claim as expenses. The IRD confirms as much: "We treat brothel operators and freelance sex workers the same as any other taxpayer or business," says a spokesperson.
Brennan says there is probably some cash passed under the table, but it would be far less than people expect, and no different from the likes of tradies or hairdressers.
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Other parts of the industry have changed hugely. The landmark case was a world-first, and the story quickly spread around the globe.
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But clearly I am still prey to my conservative upbringing in a sleepy north Auckland suburb that boasted the sexual wattage of a weak lightbulb. I found Marco on a website advertising mainly female sex workers, newzealandgirls. His profile promised he was approachable, but I wonder how closely he will match his online description. When he walks up to the table my nerves immediately settle.
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With his small black eyes and grey stubble tingeing the skin on his jowls, he's more cute teddy bear than Velcro-yanking stallion. And then we get talking. In when he decided to give male escorting a try, he discussed it with his partner. He gave her, hypothetically at least, a choice: would she prefer him to sneak around behind her back, bedding other women?
Or would she prefer him to find legitimate clients and bring home some extra cash on top of his day job? The relationship survived. He says she has never doubted him. He has built his business around two types of client. The first is single but under-confident. She is often, in his words, "on the larger side", and is aged anywhere from 30 to plus. She is looking for a safe, gentle date who will not reject her.
Marco might go with her to a function or out to dinner before taking her behind closed doors for sex. The second is a married woman whose husband doesn't satisfy her sexually any more. Often she sees Marco behind her husband's back, but occasionally the husband makes the call to Marco for her.
He might want to watch his wife have sex with Marco, voyeur style, or he may be much older and want to buy her the sex he can no longer deliver. Marco pampers clients with his personal specialty, an erotic full-body massage. He says 90 percent of his clients are satisfied with this, and 60 percent don't request full sex afterwards.
From the moment a client walks in the door, he tries to make her feel important and beautiful.
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Then, ditching his high-minded ideals, he leans in to confide his views on women of various different races and social classes. He claims he can work out over the phone which nationality he is talking to, and what "level" she is. He prefers "upper class ladies". He says there are men out there who are happy to service "lower class ladies" — he'll leave it to them. He reveals the kind of old-school racism, blatant and unashamed, that I haven't come across for years.
I feel a kind of culture shock, like I'm privy to someone operating in an alternate reality, where ignorance and prejudice are unchallenged. What woman would want to buy time with this kind of guy? An extremely low-profile one, it turns out. These women are a small, tight-lipped minority in an industry dominated by the male client.
Most male escorts service male clients, and escorts who service only women report almost unanimously that it's difficult to make a living. It's something many do on the side for extra cash. Marco believes there are about six male escorts in Auckland catering exclusively to women. Most of the five Auckland-based male escorts I speak to confirm a recent increase in demand from women.
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Julie, co-owner of Sydney-based escort agency My Male Companion, says the company has also seen women clients increase by about 30 percent a year for the past few years. Since prostitution was legalised in New Zealand in , a woman hiring a male escort is no longer involved in a criminal act, and this, combined with the ever-growing number of women with large independent incomes and the discretion afforded by the internet and mobile phone, has helped create a mini explosion in this micro-market.
Changing views on female sexuality have probably also played a role. Despite this shift, it's tough to unearth a woman who has used a male escort and is willing to talk about it. Now 51, Elizabeth used male escorts for two years from age 47, after her marriage ended when she was Who do you meet in bars? It's not pretty. Conservatively dressed, with cropped blonde hair and a pillowy figure, she has the feel of a jolly aunt.
She remembers sitting in the lounge of the luxurious central Sydney apartment she had just bought, 47 years old, childless and newly divorced.
Her ex-husband viewed his sexuality as evil and had only been able to have sex with her if he thought of her as a "whore". His solution was to replace sex with pornography. Things were just as distant between them emotionally, so ending the marriage was like crawling out of a desert desperate for a drink of water. She realised Mr Right might never show up. But she had money. So she began to explore.