Foolishness of Prostitution Reform Act Shown Once Again

"The Herald investigations this week into the exploitation of foreign women drawn into prostitution further confirm the foolishness of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003" said the Kiwi Party leader Larry Baldock. "Prior to this legislation, pimping - the living off the earnings of the prostitution of others - was illegal while the actual act of prostitution was not. But once it becomes legal for one person to profit from someone else selling their bodies for sexual services that legislation actually promotes the exploitation of sex workers.

"I remember the lofty claims made by Catherine Healey from the Prostitutes' Collective and MPs Tim Barnett and Sue Bradford to the Select Committee I sat on", continued Mr Baldock. "They stated this revolutionary new law would enable the girls to organise themselves into unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions. Yeah right! I suspect the experience referred to in the Herald on Monday of the Malaysian woman working 16 hours a day, servicing 10 to 20 clients, is still very much the order of the day in brothels around the country."

The Kiwi Party Deputy Leader Simonne Dyer said in all her years of experience working in many nations with the world's largest volunteer relief and development agency, she had never seen prostitution provide a safe and exploitation free working environment.

"The law here in NZ does not permit the police to monitor brothels", said Mrs Dyer. "They cannot enter a brothel unless they have good reason to believe a crime is already being committed, and unlike the owner of the corner dairy who must display their licence on the premises, the owner of a brothel has 24 hours to produce their licence to operate that brothel. Added to this the court records on who holds a brothel licence are kept secret and can only be accessed by the police for the purpose of investigating an offence.

"The final stupidity of the Prostitution Law Reform was to allow Small Owner Operated Brothels (SOOBs) to operate in the suburbs without a licence as long as there were no more than 4 prostitutes working at any one time. If one 'working girl' can service 20 men in a 16 hour shift that would mean 80 clients coming and going from a residential property in some previously quiet neighbourhood.

"The Kiwi Party will continue to call for the complete overhaul of this foolish legislation to put in place better protection for those caught in the so called sex industry. The list of countries around the world is growing of those that are turning to laws like those introduced into Sweden in 1999 that focus on reducing the demand for sexual services by criminalising the buyers. We would do well to join them instead of continuing with the legalisation of pimping and brothel keeping that NZ has experimented with, turning our nation into a destination country for human trafficking", said the Kiwi Party leader and deputy leader.

ENDS

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