Northern Territory Sex Work Laws

The Territory’s peer-only sex worker program is SWOP NT. All staff and volunteers of SWOP NT are sex workers. 

SWOP NT is a member of the Scarlet Alliance Australian Sex Workers Association, and is a peer-based and led program located within the Garramilla (Darwin) NTAHC office on the unceded land of the Larrakia Nation. 

SWOP NT’s advocacy, health promotion, training/workshops, outreach, and broader programming aims to improve sex workers’ lives by holistically addressing issues including our human rights.

SWOP NT advocates to reduce stigma and discrimination against us as workers via advocacy, information, resources and education sessions to health and legal sectors to facilitate equitable access to services and to inform policy development for a safer framework for sex workers.

The SWOP Shop can be accessed from NTAHC’s Garramilla (Darwin) or Mparntwe (Alice Springs) offices for affordable safer sex supplies and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). 

Currently (June 2022), there are no SWOP NT staff employed at the Mparntwe office, but phone access to SWOP NT staff through the Mparntwe office is available. SWOP NT is able to provide outreach to Garramilla (Darwin and the wider region) regularly, and a couple of times per year to Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and Nitmiluk (Katherine). 

Aboriginal languages in NT

More than 100 Aboriginal languages and dialects are spoken in the Northern Territory (NT).

NOTE: Aboriginal languages of the NT vary greatly in their grammatical structures, concepts and vocabulary. Scarlet Alliance notes that the Aboriginal language place names of major towns and cities across the Northern Territory that are commonly used for one Aboriginal people’s group area may not reflect other Aboriginal people’s groups use of language and/or terminology for the same land.  

The Northern Territory was the third jurisdiction in the world to decriminalise sex work, thanks to over 20 years of sex worker led activism and advocacy.  The hard work of SWOP NT, the Sex Worker Reference Group (SWRG), Scarlet Alliance and solidarity support from allies and the Northern Territorry Labor government saw the passing of the Sex Industry Act 2019.

The Northern Territory Sex Industry Act 2019 defines one of the main ‘Objects’ of the Act as: 

(e) to enable the sex industry to operate in accordance with the laws of the Territory and the Commonwealth as they apply to all individuals and businesses generally, including laws governing employment, occupational health and safety, workers compensation and rehabilitation, planning, taxation and discrimination.

On 12th of June 2020, the amendments to the NT Planning Scheme 2020 and Northern Territory Planning Act 1999 were ratified, which allowed for the implementation of the Territory’s Sex Industry Act.

The Sex Industry Act fully decriminalises sex work and sex workers in the NT, defining sex work and sex worker as follows:

• ‘Sex work: means the provision by a person of services that involve the person participating  in sexual activity with another person in return for payment or reward.
• ‘Sex worker’: means a person who performs sex work.

The Sex Industry Act 2019 and its related Sex Industry Regulations 2020 are the primary legislation that regulate sex work in the Northern Territory. 

Other legislation that is relevant for the decriminalisation of sex work and sex working in the NT includes:

• Northern Territory Planning Act 1999

• NT Planning Scheme 2020 Amendments

• Northern Territory Public and Environmental Health Act 2011

The Sex Industry Act 2019 defines sex work as meaning ‘the provision by a person of services that involve the person participating in sexual activity with another person in return for payment or reward.’ It defines a sex worker as ‘a person who performs sex work’. 

Both operators of sex services business and sex workers must ‘take all reasonable steps to adopt and promote safe sex practices’ (Sex Industry Act 2019).  Sex services businesses are required to provide safer sex supplies as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to sex workers free of charge. 

The Scarlet Alliance Red Book Online provides a wide range of sexual health information for sex workers, by sex workers, and provides information on testing, safer sex, harm reduction, and workplace health and safety.  

Many STI and BBV are ‘notifiable infections’ in some or all states and territories. This means that diagnosed cases of these infections are confidentially reported to state or territory health departments. You can find more information on the notifiable conditions in each jurisdiction on our BBV, STI and the Law resource, or contact your local sex worker peer organisation for support if you’re concerned about any impact this might have on your work.

It is illegal for a person to supply, or offer to supply, a dangerous drug in exchange for sex work services. (maximum penalty 5 years imprisonment – Sex Industry Act 2019, sections 10 & 11). A ‘dangerous drug,’ means any drug listed in Schedules 1 or 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1990 (NT). 

It is illegal for a person to make “a false representation or otherwise [act] fraudulently” if  their actions result in a person doing, or continuing to do sex work (maximum penalty 5 years imprisonment – Sex Industry Act 2019).

This section likely captures two types of situations: 

1. A client not paying for services, but leading a sex worker to believe that they did;
2. A client sneakily removing or not using a condom without a sex worker’s knowledge or consent (commonly known as ‘stealthing’). 

If you’ve experienced either of these situations while doing sex work in the NT, contact SWOP NT for peer outreach, advocacy and support.

Advertising sex work services can also be impacted by federal advertising and internet laws, as well as the requirements of private advertising service providers.

Sex services business are decriminalised in the Northern Territory. This means that all businesses are able to lawfully operate, subject to planning and, where more than three  workers are employed, obtain suitability certificate to operate.

Sex services businesses that were already operating prior to the passing of the Sex Industry Act 2019 have been legacied into the Northern Territorry Planning Scheme to operate.

Sex services businesses are subject to the requirements of the NT Planning Scheme, and are permitted in both commercial and industrial zones, provided they are not abutting an established kindergarten, school, childcare centre, or place of worship. In this case, ‘abutting’ means that that a sex services business can exist next door to one of these businesses, but only if there is a laneway or similar in between them. There are some other complexities to this requirement, so if you’re unsure whether you’re working in a business that is compliant, contact SWOP NT for further information and support. 

Operators (owners and/or managers) of sex services businesses which engage 3 or more sex workers must hold a ‘suitability certificate’ issued through the Territorry Business Centre.

If you’re seeking further information, peer support, outreach services to where you work, or have any concerns about about your health and safety working for a sex services business in the NT, contact SWOP NT.

Private sex work, like other forms of sex work, is decriminalised (lawful) in the Northern Territory (both incalls and outcalls). 

The NT Planning Scheme permits that up to two sex workers who reside in the dwelling can do sex work from their residence as a ‘home based business’ in residential areas. Home based sex workers are also able to employ one other person as support staff (Part 1-16), to respond to phone contact, take bookings, provide cleaning services, provide security on outcalls, and/or to assist with transport. Home based businesses cannot be abutting an established kindergarten, school, childcare centre, or place of worship, or in a restricted development zone. In this case, ‘abutting’ means that that a sex services business can exist next door to one of these businesses, but only if there is a laneway or similar in between them. There are some other complexities to this requirement, so if you’re unsure whether you’re working in a place that is compliant, contact SWOP NT for further information and peer support. 

Street-based sex work is decriminalised (lawful) in the Northern Territory.

If you are working outdoors Contact SWOP NT for outreach, peer support and advocacy. 

All sex work is decriminalised in the Northern Territorry. If you have any issues with police in relation to sex work in any spaces where you are choosing to work in the Northern Territory, please contact SWOP NT for peer outreach, advocacy and support.