PM’s press secretary ‘recorded sex workers without consent’

Wednesday, 4 June 2025

Warning: This story may contain detail that upsets some readers.

The Prime Minister’s deputy chief press secretary allegedly recorded audio of multiple sessions with Wellington sex workers, and amassed a gallery of women working out at the gym, shopping, and being filmed through a window getting ready to go out. Paula Penfold reports on the case of Michael Forbes and the sex workers.

In July 2024 Zara*, a Wellington sex worker, had a sickening realisation when her client went to shower at the beginning of their session: his phone’s voice recorder was allegedly activated.

That client was Michael Forbes, who at the time was press secretary to Minister for Social Development Louise Upston, a former Minister for Women. In February this year he was appointed acting deputy chief press secretary to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

“Michael admitted to recording,” claims Zara. She and other sex workers working that night asked Forbes for the PIN code — which he gave — and they went through his phone.

They claim to have found multiple audio recordings of sessions with sex workers.

They also found albums full of photos, which Stuff has seen but chosen not to publish.

There are dozens of pictures of women working out at the gym: stretching, wearing bike shorts, the camera zoomed in close. Often, because of the nature of what they’re doing, the women appear to be in compromising positions, captured as a moment in time.

“Zooming up on their bum … lots of girls in sports gear and gym tights and gym shorts,” says Zara.

Some photos at the gym are of a sex worker who Stuff understands Forbes had previously seen.

“I was horrified,” Zara says. “It was very scary. It felt like a man that was experiencing a high volume of sexual desire and was offloading that onto innocent women who were not consenting.”

There is a sequence of 39 photos of a woman in a supermarket aisle, shot at first from a distance and getting progressively closer. Eventually the camera is alongside her, snapping a series of close-up photos from behind, in her leggings.

There are 14 photos of a woman asleep or passed out, the lens trained progressively closer on her breasts, nipples exposed.

There’s a woman, alone at night, walking up the steps to the Beehive.

“I felt horrified and disturbed,” says Zara. “Disgusted and very powerless.”

There is also a series of four videos of women getting ready to go out, filmed through a window at night.

“They’re walking around, they don’t have tops on,” says Zara. “You can see their breasts are exposed. And you can see them getting changed.”

Juxtaposed among the images in the camera roll are various photos of Forbes in political situations, including shaking the hand of the Australian Prime Minister.

What does Forbes say?

It needs to be said here that prior to his role as a press secretary, Forbes was a journalist, including for Stuff newspapers The Southland Times and the (then) Dominion Post.

According to his LinkedIn page, he became a press officer for the National Party in 2019, and worked as lead media advisor for the Ministry of Social Development from 2021 until January 2024, when he became Upston’s senior press secretary.

He was appointed as Christopher Luxon’s acting deputy chief press secretary in February this year.

On LinkedIn he describes his responsibilities as “Providing media relations, communications, social media and information services and advice for the Office of the Prime Minister to help him communicate the Government's priorities, milestones, and successes to New Zealanders.

“Some of my key tasks include preparing media briefs, speeches, media statements, and other publicity material; advising the Prime Minister on the public relations implications of proposals and policies; managing the Prime Minister's relationships with journalists and media representatives, liaising with media and communications advisors in public service agencies, as well as press secretaries in ministerial offices across the Executive.”

Stuff phoned Forbes about the allegations on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, he sent a statement saying, “I want to offer my sincerest apologies to the women I have harmed.

“In the past, I was in a downward spiral due to unresolved trauma and stress, and when confronted with the impacts of my behaviour a year ago, I sought professional help, which is something I wish I had done much earlier.

“What I failed to do then was make a genuine attempt to apologise. Instead, I tried to move on without offering those I had harmed the acknowledgment, accountability, or amends they deserved. I recognise how wrong that was.

“I have spent the past year reflecting on how I may have affected these women’s sense of safety and ability to go about their lives and work. No one should ever feel violated, unsafe, or disrespected, especially in spaces where they should feel secure, and I am truly sorry for contributing to an environment where women may have felt otherwise.

“The therapy I've received over the past year has helped me to understand the roots of my behaviour and begin addressing the patterns that led to it. This is a long-term commitment to change that I take very seriously.

“I understand that my past actions may have undermined the trust people place in me. So, I have resigned from my job to focus on the work I need to do.”

What does the Prime Minister’s Office say?

On Tuesday, Stuff asked the Prime Minister’s office whether he was aware of the concerns and what action he intended to take.

On Wednesday afternoon his office sent a statement, saying, “The Prime Minister’s office was first made aware of allegations about a staff member working temporarily in the office by a journalist at 4pm on June 3. The matters were immediately raised with Ministerial Services and the Prime Minister was informed that evening.

“The allegations were serious and concerning. They were discussed with the staff member on the evening of June 3 and it was clear their employment was untenable.

It was agreed that the staff member was stood down that evening and they resigned the following morning. Had the staff member not resigned, we expect their employment would have been terminated after a short investigation.

“As this is an employment matter between the individual and Ministerial Services, the Prime Minister will not be able to comment further.”

Did Forbes do anything wrong?

“Voices are recognisable [and] people hearing you have sex, which is disgusting. It messes up your whole body, makes you feel unsafe, puts you in a paranoid mode,” says Zara. “I felt exposed and vulnerable in a way where I couldn’t protect myself. It felt unjust and unfair.”

She says it was a professional relationship, the terms of which were breached.

“I was consenting to a paid companionship that involved sexual intercourse. You don’t just pay and are allowed to do whatever you want. You’re paying for my time and my companionship, not my autonomy.”

Zara found being recorded traumatic and says it made her hyper-vigilant afterwards — she needed therapy costing hundreds of dollars.

“Your job should be giving you money to survive, not putting you in therapy.”

Another sex worker, Fern*, puts it like this: “We work in this environment where people have different proclivities and kinks. That’s fine when something is done consensually and is discussed and agreed to. “You can have kinks up the yin-yang, it’s the lack of consent that’s the problem. Seeing a sex worker doesn’t give you carte blanche when it comes to consent. You haven’t rented a vessel, it’s a human being and they have not consented to being recorded.”

Sex work researcher and advocate at the Sex Workers’ Collective, Cherida Fraser, says in these paid-for sessions “there are lots of types of conversations in the room with a client. Sometimes people give identifying information. Their privacy is really compromised.

“It’s an appalling breach of trust. It's a breach of consent. It may not be illegal but it’s definitely unethical and immoral to be audio recording intimacy in a very private moment.”

So it’s not illegal?

A complaint was made to the police, but no charges were laid: the audio recordings were not illegal because, under the law, the consent of only one party is required to make an audio recording, which in this case was Forbes.

The possession of photos of the women in gyms and shopping were not illegal because even though they are zoomed in close on parts of their bodies, they were taken in a public place.

Do you know more: Email paula.penfold@stuff.co.nz

What about the videos of women getting changed, filmed through a window?

Under the Crimes Act it’s illegal to intentionally or recklessly make or possess an intimate visual recording of another person without that person’s knowledge or consent.

But the police decided against charges. “I don’t know why they chose to ignore that,” says Zara, describing the video as “disgusting”.

“They should not have to filter themselves in a safe space … which is just completely unfair and unjust.”

Asked why it was decided no charges would be laid, Wellington District Manager Criminal Investigations, Detective Inspector John Van Den Heuvel, said, “ Police received a complaint from a Wellington brothel in July last year, after a client was found to have concerning images and recordings on his phone.

“Police investigated, and having spoken to the individual, and noting the event did not meet the threshold for criminal prosecution, the case was filed.”

Then what about privacy legislation?

Under the Privacy Act the collection or use of personal information in a way which would be highly offensive to a reasonable person could lead to that person making a complaint.

Zara says it was offensive, but to her it’s more than a privacy issue: she believes the law needs to change so that intimate audio recordings are illegal in the same way intimate video is.

“That’s a very specific, vulnerable situation. We’re meant to have laws to protect vulnerable people, and that law only protects the perpetrator, not the vulnerable,” Zara says. “It is a violation to be recorded, even if it is just your voice. The violation is that sex workers are in a compromising and vulnerable position where they are being intimate with someone, and it’s an exchange. It’s not a partnership. There are rules, because money is being exchanged so you cannot just pull rules out of your pocket and decide that you would like to record it.”

Says Fern: “If I’m making a recording for my sexual gratification without consent and it’s not illegal, that’s bananas. We are vulnerable.”

Their advocacy organisation agrees. “I think audio intimate recording should be included as an amendment in the intimate visual recording legislation,” says Fraser. “There should be a punishment.”

And she points out the risk of sex being recorded is not something that’s unique to sex workers.

“I’m in no doubt that these things are occurring outside of sex work context as well and I think it’s really great that a sex worker is brave enough to talk about this and shine some light.”

Is it in the public interest to know about this?

Forbes may not have been charged but several sex workers spoken to by Stuff believe it is in the public interest — particularly given the position he held — that his actions are reported.

“It’s absolutely relevant who he is,” says Fern. “He is covertly voyeuristic. Of course his job plays into it, how could it not?

“I saw this man get promoted since this happened. Now he’s the Prime Minister’s lackey. I'm sorry, it’s just not good enough.”

Advocate Fraser says: “It is a moral and ethical breach, it is a breach of consent and privacy and respect. And if this person is advising our government in one way or another I think it is important that we know who’s doing that.”

Zara says in the absence of any charges the public should know.

“You cannot go into a private arrangement and decide that you will no longer act ethically and justly and assert yourself in that way, and record without consent, because he would not dare do that in his normal work.

She too believes Forbes’ position in proximity to power should mean he is accountable.

“Someone in that position of authority is allowed to skate through life without actually having consequences of accountability. It’s then on me to … I have to protect myself from him. It’s my fault that I was recorded and I have to be alert and hyper-vigilant to protect myself from these men.

“If you do something wrong there has to be consequences for your actions.”

*Names changed to protect identities.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Forbes worked for the Manawatū Standard. He was a branch reporter for the Dominion Post in Manawatu, and prior to that he worked for the Southland Times.