New Zealand needs a formalised service to help disabled people find sex, not just for pleasure but also for their health, those working in the disability and sex sectors say.
Male sex worker and activist Saul Isbister left New Zealand in the mid-1990s and headed to New South Wales, where he helped establish Touching Base with his friend and colleague, Rachel Wotton.
The pair are in New Zealand to promote their documentary Scarlet Road and to share their own experience, in the hope that New Zealanders will start talking more openly about this work, and in turn help to destigmatise two sectors of society they say are discriminated against.
Touching Base trains sex workers and those who work in the disability sector and acts as a referral agency, matching people with disabilities with prostitutes.
The charitable organisation started in 2000 after a series of conversations between interested parties.
The Prostitutes’ Collective has welcomed a nine-year jail term imposed on a man convicted of raping a Christchurch prostitute in a shelter in the grounds of Mona Vale.
The woman had believed she was going to die in the early morning encounter with 21-year-old Rufus Joseph, after the threats he made.
The regional co-ordinator New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective, Anna Reed, was in court for much of the trial and for the sentencing by Judge John Macdonald in Christchurch District Court today.
She said afterwards: “We are really pleased with the courts recognising that no means no and that a sex worker has the same rights as anybody else. The sentencing has reflected this.”
Joseph, has been living and working in New Zealand for two-and-a-half years, after travelling from India. He will be deported at the end of his sentence.
A skeleton found at Port Waikato's Sunset Beach is that of a 17-year-old sex worker who was last seen 19 years ago on Auckland's Karangahape Rd.
The remains, discovered by a person walking their dog last month, are those of Jane Marie Furlong, police have confirmed.
Detective Inspector Mark Benefield says Ms Furlong was reported missing by her boyfriend in May 1993, after she failed to meet him as arranged on Karangahape Rd two days earlier.
"Police have always believed she disappeared in suspicious circumstances," he said.
"While it brings little comfort to know the initial concerns about her well-being were well-founded, it's pleasing that we have some evidence to work with in terms of our current homicide investigation."
An explosive political scandal brewing across the Tasman has a growing number of New Zealand links - a Wellington-born politician, a Kiwi prostitute and a former Auckland restaurateur.
Former Australian Labor Party MP Craig Thomson - now an independent - is accused of using his Health Services Union credit card to pay for thousands of dollars in sex services between 2002 and 2007.
Thomson, 47, denies he spent $500,000 of union funds improperly and claims a bizarre conspiracy involving brothels using his credit card details to make charges to his account without his permission or knowledge.
The Australian Channel 9 show A Current Affair says it has secured an interview with a retired sex worker, now in her 30s, who alleges she slept with Thomson.
The prostitute, originally from New Zealand, has reportedly been paid $77,664 to spill the beans and has been moved out of Australia to keep her away from journalists from competing media outlets.
Sick of stereotypes and judgments, Auckland stripper Shard McNeill has taken on "prudish" New Zealand in a video blog explaining the stripping industry.
Watched by more than 3000 viewers on YouTube, the video has been splashed across the internet.The weekly instalments show McNeill discussing what she calls the real stripping culture.
The first instalment was about her first day on the job, her first lap dance, and more."I wanted to make the blog to show people that I take pride in what I do," the bubbly brunette says."It's an interesting topic, people are so intrigued by it."
Starting as a bar supervisor in Tauranga, McNeill loved her job at first, getting paid $400 a week but felt there was more out there for her.
Now working in Auckland she makes about $750 to $1000 a night. "In the good season," she laughs.McNeill goes on stage for 10 minutes at a time, dancing to two songs, at least five to ten times a night.She believes she has met lifelong friends in this industry.