Hutchison Paul: Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill — Second Reading 
Hutchison Paul: Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5669] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill. First I acknowledge George Hawkins for having the courage to bring in this local bill and for supporting his local council Sir Barry Curtis and the various local community boards particularly that of Papatoetoe. I also acknowledge the Prostitutes Collective for its efforts to improve the health and well-being of prostitutes in a situation where I believe they are not well supported by this Labour Government. 
I feel compelled to speak out in support of this bill not because it is technically perfect—it certainly is not—but because I am deeply concerned that children including girls and boys who are claimed to be as young as 12 are now soliciting on the streets of Manukau and in many other areas around South Auckland. 
I was deeply worried when the Labour Government introduced the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 that it made no or scant provision or detailed planning for the protection of children. We have just heard Tim Barnett with his grand plan. It is typical of a Labour Government that it brings in a liberalising law but fails to have the supporting structures that will help people like those children who are soliciting in South Auckland as we speak. It was obvious when the reform bill came in that there would be a number of prostitutes who simply could not get employment in registered brothels and that they would turn underground or else they would go on to the streets. That is exactly what has happened and that is exactly what this Labour Government has failed to support. 
When I look at this report of the Local Government and Environment Committee I believe that I see a Labour-led majority report that is utterly patronising and just demonstrates how little this Government has done to support the very things that it stated were important. For instance the report states: “We consider the Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill contradictory to the intent of the Prostitution Reform Act. As well as decriminalising prostitution and soliciting the Act recognised prostitution as a legitimate profession and sought to establish appropriate employment health and safety provisions to safeguard the rights of sex workers and protect them from exploitation.” 
Well we see on the streets of Manukau exactly the opposite situation. We do know that the hapless Minister of Health Pete Hodgson who has considerable difficulty with the waiting lists has not done a thing to control the increasing rates of STDs syphilis gonorrhoea chlamydia and human papilloma virus that are in epidemic proportions down in the streets of Manukau City. Little has been done by this Labour Government to strengthen the importance of the reproductive health strategy that was initiated by Jenny Shipley back in the 1990s. Those are the sorts of supports that Labour should have put in place when it liberalised the law but it failed to do so. 
Secondly the report states that a “key aim of the Prostitution Reform Act was to prohibit the involvement of persons under the age of 18 in the sex industry.” So what are those children doing there 3 years after the bill became an Act? [ 
Interruption 
] I ask Mrs Chadwick what they are doing soliciting there now. Last night I phoned the local chairman of the Papatoetoe Community Board who said he would take me out this Friday. He absolutely guaranteed to show me literally dozens of children on the streets after midnight in Otahuhu Manurewa Manukau and Papatoetoe. This claim can be backed up by my colleague Chester Borrows who has been out there recently and who described these young children to me. All the Labour Government had done was to help a busload of transvestites come in at about midnight and distribute condoms to those workers. 
I want to look at the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. I agree there are problems in this bill that require modification but I say that the protection of the young children is much more important and Labour has failed to do anything significant to protect them. Let us look at what is talked about in this report. It talks about existing statutory provisions and other measures and states: “It is our belief and this view is endorsed by various submitters that the behaviour of sex workers on the streets is generally regulated more effectively by their peers and outreach groups working with them than by legislation.” Well why are those groups not doing so now? The report goes on to state that the groups are not being properly funded. Why are they not being funded? Labour has basically let them down. 
In respect of council-led initiatives the report states: “Manukau City Council has developed this bill following what it perceives to be the failure of various initiatives including closing parks at night cleaning installing surveillance cameras roading changes traffic and pedestrian flow management and an increase in police presence in the area.” Well is that not a hang of a lot that the council has done already? 
Steve Chadwick 
: Not enough. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: “Not enough.” she says. The report goes on to state that the problem has been sorted out in Cuba Mall Wellington City. I say to Mrs Chadwick that the population of South Auckland is slightly different from that of Wellington City. There are far more people there are far more poor people and the Labour Government has done very little to help them out. 
The report then talks about halfway houses and support services: “One project concentrates on helping children aged 11 to 17 who have been sexually abused and are involved in street prostitution.” That is great but the report goes on to state that one house “can accommodate only six residents.” That is about the sole thing that this Labour Government has done. Let us look at the subject of safe-house brothels which the report says are quite a good idea. But the report goes on to state that none exist in New Zealand at present. We have to ask the Labour Government why none exist after 3 years of this great reform that Tim Barnett and his friends have brought in. 
Let us look at the Prostitution Law Review Committee and the review that Tim Barnett talks with such largesse about. The report states: “The review will examine how the Act has operated since its commencement”—that is great; it is very good that there is a review in place—“the effect of the Act on the number of sex workers in New Zealand and the nature and adequacy of measures to help people avoid or leave the commercial sex industry.” Then it states: “Although the review does not specifically focus on street soliciting it will include estimates of the numbers of street sex workers”. I ask Labour why the original bill did not put the focus on ensuring that there was support for street workers. That is what it has failed to do time and time again. The Labour Government is all too good at bringing in liberalising legislation but it fails to bring in practical support to underpin it. 
Finally the report’s conclusion states: “We are concerned about the increasing amount of antisocial behaviour apparently occurring in New Zealand’s urban areas”—the gall of this patronising Labour Government! It was Labour that brought in the power of general competence for local government. Why is the Labour Government not listening to local government now?