As a sex worker, when Layla feels safest at work, she's doing something illegal.

Every time Layla gets a message from a new client she has to be careful it's not a cop.

As a sex worker in Queensland, Layla can only legally work if she's alone and in a private dwelling, or in a licensed brothel. The law also means police can legally go undercover and pose as clients, which can see sex workers entrapped into illegally working with another sex worker.

"We have to try to suss out if every single person who contacts us is a cop trying to arrest us... There's a process that we do to vet everyone," she told Mamamia. 

Layla can't tell me what the vetting process is like over the phone. 

For the sake of her own livelihood, and that of her child who depends on her, it needs to be kept a secret. But there are obvious signs. 

"They'll try to get us to agree to do something illegal, which we all know as sex workers and clients, you can't talk about in a text message," she said, before explaining the illegal requests could range from "can you get a friend for a threesome?" or "can you do a blow job without a condom?"

Layla, who's in her mid-thirties, usually gets a sense she's talking to a cop once a month. When she does, she immediately stops all communication, but there's no way of knowing if she was right or if she lost a genuine paying client. 

However, that soon might be about to change. 

Last month, the Queensland government confirmed it will decriminalise sex work and announced they "broadly support" the recommendations of a landmark review by the Queensland Law Reform Commission (QLRC), which calls for sweeping changes to the industry.

One recommendation from the commission was for police to no longer "have extra powers, like posing as clients, to gather evidence of sex-work-specific offences". 

For Layla, this change to sex work would mean a world of difference. 

"We'll be able to work and earn a living without worrying that I'm going to be arrested for it," she explained.

It's a sentiment that seems to be shared by others in the sex work industry, which is legal in New South Wales, Northern Territory and Victoria. 

A recent study of 204 sex workers in Queensland, conducted by DecrimQLD, found 96.7 per cent of workers did not support police being allowed to pose as clients, while 28 per cent experienced police entrapment but had not been charged. 

The Queensland Law Reform Commission also recommended removing the state's brothel licensing system and abolishing the Prostitution Licensing Authority (PLA).

"Under these changes, sex work will not be a crime. Subject to compliance with laws of general application, it will be lawful for sex workers to work alone or for two or more sex workers to work together," the report said.

In practical terms, a change like this would allow Layla to safely work with other sex workers, rather than inviting clients to come to her home alone, when her child is at their father's house. 

"[When you work alone] you're opening the door to a complete stranger, you have no idea what they're going to look like or how they're going to be," she explained. 

Having worked as a sex worker for 14 years, Layla says it's not the industry that is dangerous, but the laws policing it.

"The laws make it so that people who are looking to rob someone or assault someone, know we're an easy target because they know that we're going to be in that house or that hotel room alone."

Over the years, Layla has opted to work with other sex workers in a hotel or apartment, as part of an illegal brothel. She says it's her "favourite way to work" and it's where she feels the safest. 

But under current laws, it's something that requires extra caution. 

"When the client would first come [into the apartment], we'd have to be really quiet and hide... Sometimes you'd have to close the blinds and hide on the balcony.... we did our best to try and not let clients know that we were all there unless we needed to."

During our phone call, Layla recalls being grateful she had another sex worker with her when a situation with a client started to become unsafe. 

"I was working with just one other friend and I was having a situation in the room that could have gone really, really bad. And I yelled out and started talking really loudly," she shared. 

"She knew that that meant something was wrong so she came into the room. He got a shock and got his stuff and left. [But] that could have gone really, really badly for me." 

Looking back, she says she should have reported the incident to the police, but she felt like she didn't have an option. 

"I didn't feel like I could do that because I was breaking the law by having my friend there. But if my friend wasn't there, I don't know what would have happened."

As well as increased safety, working in groups means Layla can also earn more money, particularly if she's paid for a hotel room or apartment for the night. 

"You can make more money because there are people there straightaway. So if a client wants to have more than one person in the booking, you can all make more money." 

"And no one's taking half your money, like brothels." 

Listen to No Filter, where Mia Freedman speaks to sex worker and author, Rita Therese. Post continues below. 

More broadly, Layla says decriminalising sex work will also go a long way in helping change a long-held societal stigma about those who work in the industry. 

"I feel like for so long, we as sex workers have not been seen as or recognised by the law and the rest of the community as being a part of the community or seen as human really."

It's the stigma that she feels in her everyday life. 

"I'm out as a sex worker to my family and friends... but I have lost family and friends over too." 

"Even if you meet someone new or go to a new doctor, you're never really sure if you should tell them the truth."

"I feel like this change in the laws will finally allow us to be seen as human or deserving respect, and [that I have] a right to be able to do my job safely, which is a huge shift. I know it's not going to change everything overnight, but it really does feel like a big deal." 

Layla said it "would have been nice" if the government acted sooner in their commitment to decimalise sex work, but she's just "grateful that something's happening now".

If the recommendations put forward by the commission were followed, Layla would not only be able to work safely with others, but also with a sense of ease. 

"It will change how much looking over my shoulder I'm going to have to do for cops [and] I can just focus on keeping myself safe."

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.