Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion

... and the same goes for his press secretary

If you’ve been reading Stuff and listening to RNZ over the last 24 hours, you’ll be aware that Michael Forbes, the Prime Minister’s deputy chief press secretary, has resigned after revelations that he allegedly recorded sex workers during private encounters without their consent. That alone is a serious and disgraceful breach of privacy.

But the commentary so far has almost exclusively focused on the covert nature of the recordings and the need to respect the dignity of sex workers.

All well and very true. But there’s another issue here that everyone seems too skittish to say out loud. The recordings are not the totality of the scandal. It’s actually also an issue that an advisor to a senior minister of the Crown was visiting brothels in the first place.

This part of the story is being delicately tiptoed around. Reporters and commentators are bending over backwards to make sure nobody mistakes their coverage for moral judgement about prostitution.

We’ve heard repeatedly that prostitution is legal. That it’s empowering. That sex workers deserve dignity and respect (and they do).

But very little is being said about the judgment, character and basic prudence of a senior communications advisor seeing prostitutes.

While the prevailing media consensus may be that prostitution is just another job, akin to hairdressing or personal training, the public at large remains far less enthusiastic. Legal or not, brothels still carry an unpleasant reputation due to the morally questionable nature of the work that goes there.

There’s a reason it’s not suggested as a career path by WINZ. There’s a reason nobody celebrates if a daughter chooses to go down that path. Even among those who believe it should be legal, the “but I wouldn’t want it for someone I love,” asterisks normally follows.

Not everyone feels that way. That’s fine. It’s a free country. But enough people do that it becomes a serious issue when a senior official, who eventually became tied to the Office of the Prime Minister, was repeatedly availing himself of those services.

And just to be clear, that’s not as a matter of private morality. Not directly. It’s really matter of public trust and security.

Even in a decriminalised context, prostitution carries reputational baggage, especially where trust and discretion are paramount. While decriminalisation may have reduced criminal involvement, you’d have to be naive to think it has been eliminated it entirely. Cash-heavy transactions, vulnerable workers and pre-existing criminal networks mean that parts of the industry still intersect with organised crime, money laundering and exploitation.

These connections create potential security risks that extend beyond social stigma. They represent genuine vulnerabilities that could be exploited for blackmail or compromise. While not every sex work business has these problems, the risk profile remains elevated compared to most other service industries

It’s not just puritans who think so. New Zealand banks, ever eager to drape themselves in the rainbow flag and fly the progress banner, still refuse basic services like business bank accounts to many brothels.

That’s not an accident. It’s not a judgment. It’s a risk assessment.