Police apparently investigated after a Wellington brothel raised concerns in July last year, though they deemed it below the threshold for criminal prosecution, perhaps a result of the offender’s position of power and associations rather than any limitation of the law. However, this sordid scandal exposes not just questions about individual moral bankruptcy, or who knew what and when and why the police failed to act expediently, but a broader systemic political failure under a clearly misogynistic right-wing government.
Yesterday, RNZ reported:
The Prime Minister's deputy chief press secretary has resigned after allegedly recording audio of sessions with Wellington sex workers and taking intimate photos of women in public.
A Stuff investigation reported that Michael Forbes, a former journalist, allegedly recorded audio of multiple sessions with Wellington sex workers, and amassed a gallery of women working out at the gym, shopping, and being filmed through a window getting ready to go out.
A Wellington sex worker told Stuff she realised while Forbes was in the shower that his phone's voice recorder was allegedly activated back in July 2024.
She told the outlet she and other sex workers working that night asked Forbes for his phone PIN code and they went through his phone. They claim to have found multiple audio recordings of sessions with sex workers, albums full of photos of women, and videos of women getting ready to go out, filmed through a window at night.
Let’s cut through the spin: New Zealand’s Prostitution Reform Act 2003 decriminalised sex work to protect workers’ rights and safety, a world-leading move championed by the likes of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective. Yet, under this government’s austerity-driven agenda, we’re seeing a grim reality unfold. Savage cuts to welfare, housing support, and health services, coupled with a cost-of-living crisis, are ensuring young women, particularly Māori and Pasifika, are being forced into desperate work they wouldn’t normally undertake.
The data is stark: Māori women, who make up only 9% of the population, account for 31.7% of those working as prostitutes, often in the riskiest street-based sector. Many enter under the legally required 18-years of age, driven by poverty and a lack of options, not choice.
There is no question that the coalition’s policies are socially destructive, slashing the safety net that keeps young women from falling through the cracks. Rising housing costs, stagnant wages, and gutted social services create a perfect storm where survival for young women often means turning to sex work. The hypocrisy is galling: a government that claims to champion “law and order” employ a press secretary who preys on the very women their policies are endangering.
Christopher Luxon’s recent lament about declining birth rates in New Zealand rings hollow when his government’s policies are fuelling poverty and inequality…conditions that stifle family formation. The Coalition’s austerity measures undermine young people’s ability to build stable relationships, save for a first home, or afford children. Instead, these policies are pushing more young women and men into precarious work, including sex work. Michael Forbes’ reprehensible actions represent a vile abuse of power, mirroring a broader culture of entitlement and entrenched misogyny that flourishes when society devalues its most vulnerable.
Critics of decriminalisation, like Family First, might argue for criminalising certain aspects of sex work, but they miss the point. Don't get me wrong...the oldest profession in the world has benefited from Labour's legalisation. The issue isn’t the legal framework; it’s the economic and social conditions forcing women into prostitution against their will in the first place. Survivors like Sabrinna Valisce have called out the “rosy rhetoric” of decriminalisation, noting how it can mask coercion and exploitation when structural inequalities persist, which is exactly what the National-led government has further ensured with their socially destructive policies.
Michael Forbes, whose scripted apology and sob story shouldn’t be believed, was providing advice to Chris Luxon to apparently “communicate the government’s priorities, milestones and successes to New Zealanders,” while exploiting sex workers that he had a vested interest in controlling, both physically and arguably through the government's legislative changes. His type of abusive mentality is clearly on display throughout the coalition's policy direction, which is designed to keep young women poor and desperate. The government’s refusal to fund robust exiting services for sex workers for instance or address poverty head-on suggests a tacit acceptance of this exploitation, or worse, a conscious effort to ensure young women have no other option.
Let’s not mince words: Chris Luxon’s government is complicit in a system that funnels young women into prostitution, then turns a blind eye when they’re abused and violated. Forbes’ alleged abuse of sex workers is a clear indication that he was advising the PM to further entrench targeted policies that strip away women’s rights. Cuts to social services and women’s refuges aren’t just to save the government money…they’re a manifestation of the right wing’s need to disempower and control women. This isn’t just negligence; it’s a deliberate design to keep young women vulnerable, ripe for exploitation by wealthy men in places of power.
This government’s failure to prioritise economic justice and social support is a betrayal of our most vulnerable, condemning young women to a cycle of desperation and abuse. No right-minded New Zealander should stand for this entrenched system of financial exploitation. It’s time to demand accountability, dismantle the policies that trap women in economic servitude, and build a society that truly values people’s dignity, no matter what type of employment they choose to undertake.