The New Zealand Herald

Sex in NZ makes world headlines

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New Zealand’s population is increasing by one person every 5 minutes and 26 seconds. In the next few months we’ll have 5 million people. This five-part series looks ahead to what the nation will be like when that milestone is reached, and recalls what it was like every time it added a million people to its population. Lincoln Tan reports on sex, skiing, sailing, netball, movies and a sudden influx of people

The population clock hit four million in 2003, but it was sex in New Zealand that made headlines around the world, recalls Kiwi event specialist Shaughan Woodcock.

Woodcock, an LGBTQ advocate best known for being a producer for the Auckland Pride Parade, remembers it as a time when the rainbow community was fighting for a voice.

“We had just lost the Hero Parade a couple of years earlier, which was a major vehicle helping the community gain acceptance,” he said.

The annual event, which started in 1992, was attended by about 100,000 people annually, but had to stop in 2001 due to financial constraint­s.

Woodcock, who was then in his late 20s and working as Air New Zealand’s informatio­n technology call centre manager, says big strides were being made in the country’s sex industry.

In June 2003, New Zealand became the first country to decriminal­ise sex work.

With the Prostituti­on Reform Act, New Zealand’s sex industry became one of the most liberal in the world.

The law decriminal­ised brothels, escort agencies and soliciting and sparked worldwide interest.

“The sweeping sex industry changes were the big news, no one really thinks of it as being a landmark year of the population hitting four million,” Woodcock said.

“Within the rainbow community, there was a lot of talk about how sex workers were starting to feel safe again and no longer had to feel like they were criminals.”

What began in 2003 continues to attract worldwide interest.

Joep Rottier, a researcher from Utrecht University in the Netherland­s, spent five years researchin­g New Zealand’s sex industry. He has just released his report.

Rottier described the prostituti­on legislatio­n as “the most progressiv­e law of its kind in the world”.

“New Zealand decided to choose a pragmatic sex industry policy in 2003 — the only country in the world to decriminal­ise the entire voluntary commercial sex industry,” he said.

“In many countries, sex workers often have no other choice than to carry out their profession in illegal and dark environmen­ts,” Rottier said.

His research found that the laws had greatly improved the lives of sex workers. Rottier said other countries could learn from New Zealand.

“Without romanticis­ing the sex industry in New Zealand, I was impressed by how this policy could improve sex workers’ lives and work conditions in health, safety and selfdeterm­ination.”

It took a long three decades for the population to climb from three million in 1973 to reach four million in April 2003.

The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangemen­t, which allowed citizens of Australia and New Zealand to travel, reside and work between the two countries without the need of passports, saw Kiwis leaving for Australia in droves.

By 2001, eight times more New Zealanders were living in Australia than Australian­s living here, and NZ became the second largest source of immigratio­n to Australia.

For many years since the late 1970s, New Zealand’s population went into decline.

Fertility remained at or just below replacemen­t levels since the late 1970s, and an increasing number of Kiwis

continued to leave the country for Australia and beyond.

The Government made drastic changes to immigratio­n policy to address the problem of declining population.

The Immigratio­n Act 1987 radically changed the criteria for migrant entry to New Zealand, resulting in a surge in people coming from non-traditiona­l source countries.

Asia and the Pacific Islands replaced the United Kingdom and Europe as the main source of New Zealand’s immigratio­n.

Massey University sociologis­t Professor Paul Spoonley said 2003 was when the impact of major inward flows of migrants was widely felt.

“After 2003 . . . migrants have been the major source of population growth,” Spoonley said.

The presence of ethnic communitie­s — from the Pacific people who arrived under a work permit scheme establishe­d in the mid 1970s, to the Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees who resettled here in the 1980s — were being more strongly felt.

Economic and skilled migrants, mostly from Asia, were starting to arrive in large numbers as a result of the immigratio­n policy changes.

Spoonley said the presence and influx of migrants from Asia made many uncomforta­ble.

Some politician­s, he said, capitalise­d on this by making inflammato­ry remarks about Asian migration to win votes. Woodcock, however, remembers enjoying the diversity of food and other businesses that these new migrants had brought to New Zealand. “They changed Auckland. For the first time we had real dinner choices other than fried rice and spring rolls from the local Chinese takeaway,” he said.

“It added colour and a whole new dimension, and grocery shopping could be done at places like Tai Ping and not just Woolworths or Foodtown.”

The news in 2003 included the stranding on July 5 of 350 skiers and 70 skifield staff overnight at Top o’ the Bruce on Mt Ruapehu when a sudden snowstorm blew up.

Within a few minutes, the access road was deemed too dangerous to descend. The people spent the night on the mountain, but all came down safely the next day.

On the Hauraki Gulf, Team

New Zealand gave the country one of its biggest sporting heartaches that year.

Alinghi, skippered by

Russell Coutts, hammered

Dean Barker’s Team NZ

5-0 to win the America’s

Cup.

Race 4 was sailed in strong winds and rough seas and Team NZ’s mast snapped on the third leg.

In the final race on

March 1 Barker’s boys broke a spinnaker pole during a manoeuvre and lost the race and the cup to the

Swiss syndicate set up by

Ernesto

Bertarelli.

Netball fans, however, had a reason to celebrate as the

Silver

Ferns beat

Australia

49-47 in a nail-biting final to win the World Netball Championsh­ips in Jamaica.

In Wellington, an estimated 100,000 Lord of the Rings fans turned up to celebrate the world premiere of the Return of the King, the final part of the trilogy. The event was attended by stars including Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Liv Tyler and of course Kiwi director Peter Jackson.

Helen Clark was then Prime Minister in a coalition Government between Labour and the Progressiv­e Party with United Future supporting supply votes.

Bill English was National’s leader but was rolled by Don Brash who became Leader of the Opposition.

 ?? Photo / Dean Purcell ?? Events planner Shaughan Woodcock says the sweeping sex industry changes were the big news in 2003.
Photo / Dean Purcell Events planner Shaughan Woodcock says the sweeping sex industry changes were the big news in 2003.
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 ?? Photo / Glenn Jeffrey ?? A crew member cuts off the sails after Team New Zealand’s mast snapped during their fourth race against Alinghi in February 2003.
Photo / Glenn Jeffrey A crew member cuts off the sails after Team New Zealand’s mast snapped during their fourth race against Alinghi in February 2003.

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