The quotations below are from actual sex workers and are from a range of sources

** It's a choice and it pays well.

** I’ve got qualifications, BSc, MA. I’ve developed good skills from being a sex worker too – empathy, good phone manners.

** I think 25 [years old] about max [expected length of stay in sex industry] … in about five years … ‘cause it will be good to get heaps of savings and then by the time I’m 25 be able to put it for a house or something … Really, ‘cause I’ve just been partying

I make sure clients are aware of the do’s and don’ts before a booking is confirmed. If a client asks to pay extra for no condom etc, I just don’t take the booking.

** Knowing what other workers are charging or offering is a really important part of setting boundaries. You feel more confident in saying, “You must use a condom”, if you know that all the stories clients tell about other workers doing oral without a condom aren’t true.

** There are things sex workers do to protect themselves, such as learning to identify signs of STIs, learning to communicate about STIs, and learning to negotiate services with clients based on that assessment.

** Sex work tends to make me feel extremely isolated – it is a result of this I often feel bad about myself – not the work itself. I just want to chat to other work colleagues – like everyone else does, I don’t think that is a strange thing – to want to relate and belong.

** As far as the sex goes, you can either enjoy it or hate it. If you hate it, it will feel like it lasts much longer than it does and you are less likely to get a repeat client.

** I work professionally and safely and pay my taxes, raise my children in an excellent manner and yet am still perceived to be a trashy piece of scum. No one in my up-market community would ever guess what I did for work, but there’s still that stereotypical portrayal of sex workers.

** I really don’t think that there’s anything a law change would bring about to reduce the stigma and the attitudes that people in general have about the industry, um because most attitudes and opinions about us hookers is based on ignorance, bigotry, intolerance and jealousy … For well, you know, at the end of the day all we’re trying to do is get by like everybody else. It’s just a job.

** It is absolutely imperative that someone stands up and represents us, we seem to be one of the most misrepresented demographics.

** It is offensive to talk about exiting … We don’t need rescuing.

** Love it, I love it. I love meeting the people, I love doing what I do … oh some girls it may be just for money. With me it’s not, it’s money, yes, but I work for myself, which I love.

** I’d just, if I remember correctly, it was like coming up towards Christmas and I lost my job. And I’d just been and got a personal loan for a car and blah-de-blah-de-blah, and it was just, yeah, right on Christmas, and yeah, it just, I needed a lot of money fast and this was the only way to do it. Simple.

** I found out I could survive that way, ‘cause I was so young when I started. I was too young for the dole, I had no experience for a job … Um 14. It just happened by itself.

** But the reason why I’ve come back is because at home it’s just me and my two children, and being up here, you’re around other females that are in the industry.

** My goal is to buy a house or a bit of land and to support my son.

** I started two years ago. I’d never had sex for money so I went along to a brothel to find out how it all works … I’d had one partner my whole life.

** I stopped working because I just, I reach that time when, “Agh, I don’t want to do this any more. I’d rather clean. And I’ll generate the extra by cleaning and I’ll do some studying.”

**Oh I wish I could have [left the sex industry]. If I could find a really good job, I would leave in a second, that wouldn’t, like I said, discriminate me for what I am and be acceptive of like I am an employee, I’m not a transgendered person who they have to keep looking at funny.

Sometimes clients have been aggressive or violent or I felt unsafe. I have been roughly handled and had clients remove condoms.

** I have had money stolen ($26,000) by an illegal operator who was arrested and charged in the end. There were a lot of other workers involved and he was raping some of them. I was lucky!

** I’ve grabbed my gear and run off and hid in nearby bushes until I could phone for a ride home.

** Broken wrist as client wouldn’t let me leave.

** I was tied up in a situation where I could not move or get free. So I leave it for your imagination as to what happened. I can’t explain what happened.

** I had a bloke grab me as soon as I opened the door – he got me in a headlock and he sat on my back. I lost my vision, I nearly died, I couldn’t breathe. I prayed to God to help me and the guy got up and left. He thought he’d killed me.