they had the desired effect, it just wasn’t the effect you were looking for. these changes effectively increase the safety of sex work

the regulations in question were rolled back because they were made in 1994 as a first attempt at legislation… when certain things are found not to be necessary or to cause more harm than good, they were updated

the last part is really the crux of the issue: regulations that people largely ignore are unhelpful… they only mean that people are less likely to seek help for fear of punishment, and that leads to more abuse

we had sex worker registration so that the government could track effectiveness of policy changes and revoke licenses if people weren’t following the rules, but it was found that some people were doing sex work without registration, and then were reluctant to seek help if they got exploited or abused for fear that they’d get into legal trouble

other systems were put in place to ensure everyone stays safe, and the registrations were no longer necessary