This chapter provides an overview of how sex work was regulated and controlled in New Zealand before the passing of the Prostitute Reform Act (PRA) of 2003. Prior to 2003, the regulation of sex work in New Zealand was consistent with moral perspectives wherein sex workers were depicted as public nuisances and threats to family values. However, after the passing of the PRA, the government adopted a public health and human rights stance to the regulation of the industry. It also repealed all laws that effectively criminalised the activities in relation to sex work. This was in recognition of the harm caused by these policies. In doing so, New Zealand became one of the few countries to decriminalise sex work. In addition to discussing the history and the developments of the sex industry of New Zealand, the chapter also discusses the purpose of the PRA and how the specific claims were addressed in a section-by-section discussion of the Act. Such claims include: sex-worker health, operator certificates, under-age sex workers, advertising restrictions, territorial authorities, and protections for sex workers.

This chapter outlines the history of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC). It traces the collective's efforts to fight against social stigma and to overturn legislation that had a negative implication on the lives of sex workers in New Zealand. The chapter begins by providing a short outline of the socio-political context in which the NZPC emerged in the late 1980s. After tracing the composition of the NZPC, it then proceeds to the ways in which the collective built support for decriminalising sex work in New Zealand.