Bradford Sue: Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill — Second Reading 
Bradford Sue: Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5661] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party welcomes the recommendation of the Local Government and Environment Committee that the Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill not be passed and we will vote accordingly. This is not because we want to belittle or deny the genuine concerns of the council and of some residents and business people about the impact of street prostitution on Hunters Corner and Manurewa; rather we do not see that the bill is a legally sound or workably useful way of finding solutions to the real problems that have been identified. 
First of all there are real issues around the way the bill transcends the normal boundaries of local bills by trying to change the criminal law itself rather than confining itself simply to a matter relevant to its geographical borders only. If passed this bill would create new criminal offences that would apply only in Manukau City and not in the rest of New Zealand. I would hate to see this Parliament set a precedent that could in the future see local bodies making and enforcing their own criminal laws on a local territorial authority by local territorial authority basis. When we passed the Prostitution Reform Act in 2003 we decriminalised soliciting in this country. The Green Party stands by its decision to support that decriminalisation now as we did then and we have no desire whatsoever to see that progressive reform overturned even on a very localised basis. 
Secondly street-based sex workers are among the most marginalised and vulnerable people in this country. They are often transgender people and often from out of town and without family locally and whether or not they are local or transgender they are people who need support and help from society not persecution and criminalisation. If this bill were passed it would result in street workers in Manukau facing the risk of being prosecuted and fined large sums of money they could never afford for a so-called offence that would not be an offence anywhere else in Aotearoa. All this bill would do would be to penalise some of the poorest and most marginalised people for a victimless so-called crime. These are people who already find it hard to get regular work who are likely to face discrimination in most if not all aspects of their lives and who also find it hard to achieve employment even in other safer parts of the sex industry. Many brothels and escort agencies simply will not employ them leaving them with very few options beyond the street. If this bill were to go through it would put the lives and security of these workers back into the same kind of danger they were in prior to the passage of the Prostitution Reform Act. Once again the focus would be on avoiding police attention rather than on trying to survive in as safe and healthy a way as possible in what is inherently an extremely unsafe situation. 
Thirdly it is necessary when considering this bill to actually look at the realities of what is going on in Manukau. Submitters gave evidence at a very intense day of hearings at the Manukau City Council and gave very conflicting evidence on the extent of the problem with the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective—which probably knows best—estimating there are actually around 37 street workers on the streets of South Auckland at present with five of them being under the age of 18. That is a far cry from some of the horror stories and exaggerated figures we were given that day. 
Many submitters who support this bill actually put far more focus on things like littering and noise than on soliciting and prostitution. I know these submitters are concerned and well-meaning people but it appeared that a number of them were primarily motivated by moral and religious beliefs about prostitution and were seeking this change to the law as a means to undermine the intent and operation of the Prostitution Reform Act overall rather than to deal with the actual issues that may be problematic at Hunters Corner and Manurewa. 
I cannot help but add as an aside that there are far more serious problems on the streets and in the homes of Manukau than those raised by this bill. The recent homicide rate and the extraordinarily high prevalence of domestic violence and violence against children are only a few examples of that. 
However I do not want to totally minimise the real concerns of local residents and the council about some of the by-products of street prostitution. These include using streets lawns and gutters as toilets; leaving rubbish—including some quite dangerous rubbish—scattered about; making a lot of noise late at night; and drinking in public. I can understand why local residents and business people do not like those things and find them a problem. However I do not think this bill is the answer. For example if public toilets were provided if streets in the affected area were cleaned more often and if police took a more proactive interest perhaps some of these concerns could be alleviated. We have heard for example that in Wellington an intensive cleaning programme in the central city has been adopted which operates 24/7 and which helps keep the affected area safe and clean. What a good idea! I am sure Manukau could follow that example. 
In terms of what more could be done to assist in relation to the street workers themselves the obvious problem arising above all occurs when those working are under 18. However once again I would say that this bill is not needed in this regard as the Prostitution Reform Act actually increased penalties for people who use under-age workers. A new law is not needed; perhaps more proactive policing is. Rather than a punitive solution the Green Party would much rather see a supportive approach being taken to the health and welfare of street workers. We would like to see more funding going to groups who provide support in a non-judgmental way to street prostitutes. We would like to see the establishment of safe-house brothels where prostitutes can rent a room to do their work as has been developed by the council in south Sydney in conjunction with private businesses. 
On another front the Green Party also totally opposes the bill because of its inconsistency with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. Clause 12 of this local bill is totally out of hand in the way it grants to the police powers that they do not have elsewhere in criminal law and that infringe on people’s rights to refrain from making statements to police. 
This bill is a gross over-reaction on the part of Manukau City Council to street prostitution in its city. Just because street workers are by their nature more visible does not meant they should be re-criminalised. The Green Party does not want to return even in one small part of Aotearoa to the Victorian ethos that permeated our laws on prostitution prior to 2003. The original Prostitution Reform Act provided for a review process to take place. This bill is an attempt to totally circumvent and pre-empt that process. I understand that in any case work is already happening on this particular area of street soliciting in Manukau and that is good but this bill is not required to help make that happen. 
In opposing this bill I encourage the Manukau City Council to keep working for solutions to the identified problems in ways that do not harass punish or further marginalise the sex workers themselves. The council should be and I hope is working alongside the Prostitutes Collective in Auckland and other local church and community organisations to resolve the issues involved. That is a much more sustainable and less harmful approach than the one taken by the bill and the Green Party hopes that a majority in this House tonight will see that this bill is consigned to the archaic dustbin of history where it belongs.