Kōrero: Sex work
While prostitution as such has never been illegal in New Zealand, soliciting in a public place, brothel keeping and living on the earnings of prostitution were all against the law, and sex work was strongly stigmatised. In 1987 sex workers established the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective to lobby for their rights, and in 2003 New Zealand became the first country in the world to completely decriminalise sex work.