Beyer Georgina: Prostitution Reform Bill — Procedure Third Reading 
Beyer Georgina: Prostitution Reform Bill — Procedure Third Reading 
[Volume:609;Page:6601] 
GEORGINA BEYER (NZ Labour—Wairarapa) 
: 
 I rise to make my contribution to the third reading of this bill which I support. I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to the members of this Parliament for a considered and varied debate from both sides and both points of view. Along with that I congratulate supporters of both sides of the argument for their contribution which expresses a fair view from both sides of the nation. I particularly congratulate and pay great credit to Tim Barnett who has had the courage and commitment to see this bill through to this most important point. 
I support the bill because as everybody knows I have had experience in the sex industry—and I am the only member of this Parliament to have had it. If I had had a law like this to protect me and give me some teeth for redress when I was 16 and 17 years old—even on entering into the sex industry—then I might have been spared the 5 or so years I spent in that industry. Barriers would have been created against people who would coerce those under 18 to enter the sex industry in the first place. I support this bill for all the prostitutes I have ever known who have died before the age of 20 because of the inhumanity and hypocrisy of a society that would not ever give them the chance to redeem whatever circumstances made them arrive in that industry. 
This bill provides some of that protection. It provides people like me at that time with some form of redress for the brutalisation that might happen when a client pulls a knife. The horror of that situation is that it could be a life and death one—one does not know—but it would have been nice to know that instead of having to deal out justice afterwards to that person myself I might have been able to approach the authorities—the police in this case—and say: “I was raped and yes I’m a prostitute and no it was not right that I should have been raped because I said no and it was not paid attention to.” 
I think of all the people I have known in that area who have suffered because of the hypocrisy of our society which on the one hand can accept prostitution while on the other hand wants to push it under the carpet and keep it in the twilight world that it exists in. We are bringing prostitution reform into the light with some of what is proposed in this bill and the criminal element does not necessarily like to be standing in the glare of greater public influence over how an industry like this might be conducted within our society. It is about accepting that that occurs and it is about accepting the fact that the people who work in this industry deserve some human rights. I plead with those members in this House who are wavering right up to the wire to think for heaven’s sake of the people of whom I have just spoken including myself who might be spared some of the hideous nature of the way society treats prostitutes—because that is here with us. 
But if one does have fears this legislation will be reviewed in 5 years to see how it is operating and whether it is effective. If this bill passes tonight in 5 years we will be able to reassess its worth. That is something that those who are wavering should be comforted by. But to do nothing now would be irresponsible of this Parliament because the status quo would remain and that is unacceptable. This is our one chance in perhaps 20 years to do something. Whatever side of the argument we take I know we all come from a humanitarian point of view but I beg members to consider the side I am on and the side many others in this House are on also. It is the side I consider to be right. It does not diminish in my opinion the opinions of those who are against this bill because some valid points have been made but not to address this issue now with this possibility is not right. 
I will conclude by saying that right now we have a sex industry and we have legislation based on an outmoded double standard. Let us change please the part we can. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There are two split speeches now from John Carter and Nanaia Mahuta.