That sex work is a legitimate occupation is far less contentious in Australia than in the past, but the reality still requires reinforcement every so often, and we can all learn things from this industry.
On October 23, 2025, Greens Member of Parliament, Abigail Boyd, asked the New South Wales Parliament to recognise
“….that Sunday 14 September 2025 was Sex Worker Pride Day, which exists to celebrate the achievements of the global movement fighting for sex worker pride, empowerment and justice, and to allow sex workers to share survival and determination stories.” (Hansard, Page 3)
That the motion was agreed to indicates the legitimacy that the industry and occupation now holds.
Sex work has always been work and has some unique occupational conditions; however, the hazards are similar to most other industries – manual handling, occupational violence, supervision, autonomy, job design, workloads…… Decriminalisation has legitimised the industry, at least in the legal sense, if not yet totally in the social sense.
Having dabbled in the industry’s OHS, I often think of it when new OHS laws or obligations are introduced. For instance, how do the obligations to provide a psychologically safe workplace apply in brothels or other venues of sex work? This academic exercise, for most of us, challenges what we would determine as reasonably practicable controls. Are the current work tasks psychologically unsafe? Can the work be redesigned to be psychologically safer? What is the level of supervision?
Considering the occupational health and safety (OHS) needs of sex workers can help keep our OHS thinking fresh and offer valuable perspectives on how we manage health and safety and our attitudes to others. In OHS, we can learn much from exploring what-if scenarios, which are the reality for some other workers.