It comes after Griffith City Council last month rejected a development application for a brothel in the city’s largest industrial area.

Local sex worker Jackie Parker said despite the state government allowing small brothels to operate from homes, few councils had the courage to approve them.

“The government has said ‘these are all the things a sex business can do’ but each council is still set on a default of industrial zone,” Ms Parker said.

“The NSW government has said that private workers can work from home ... so two sex workers in a house, without a DA, without approval, you could just work from your home ... but it’s a matter of then going to your council and going ‘ok can we do this?’

“Industrial zones are not set up for night-time business and we’re not an industrial business, so why are we in an industrial zone?”

She said a study in Sydney had revealed many neighbours living next to small brothels were unaware they were even operating.

“It’s a discreet business, I don’t want to draw attention, my clients don’t want to draw attention,” she said.

“If I’m working full time I see maybe three people a day.

“I don’t work seven days a week, the traffic is very minimal, no one even notices.”

She said the only way to work as a sex worker in Griffith was to do “outcalls” where she visits someone in their home or motel room.

But she cannot ask someone to come to her home or motel room, which she feels is a safer option.

“Outcalls are very, to me, not safe and that’s my only option right now in Griffith if I want to be a sex worker,” she said.

“In 14 years nothing has happened, but that fear is always there.”

In NSW, the sex industry was decriminalised in the 90s, paving the way for safer working conditions. But most councils, especially in regional NSW, are not “brothel friendly”. Planning policies routinely limit where brothels can be located and how they can operate, allowing them only to operate out of industrial, and occasionally commercial, areas.