Scott Lynda: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
Scott Lynda: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5224] 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (NZ National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 I thought it was time I came down to the Chamber. I have been so busy I have not been able to take a call on this bill up until now but I do want to speak against it. In my job as a doctor I have worked at the sexually transmitted disease clinics and looked after people there. I understand some of the issues of this bill and the intention to try to improve things for the women who are working on the streets. I have met women for whom it has been a step up to be able to decide when they have sex because they have been so sexually abused in their lives. People have been able to just walk into their bedroom at any time and have sex with them so when they can actually choose somebody and the time they have sex with them that is an improvement in their lives. It is an incredibly sad indictment on our society that we have women living in that sort of situation. 
But I cannot support this bill. I cannot support it because I do not believe it will actually do anything for women on the streets and women who are working as prostitutes. If we decriminalise brothel-keeping we take a group of people who are very easy to manipulate who have often been abused who often have alcohol and drug habits and those women will be the victims of people who want to use them to gain money. I cannot in any way support that because I do not believe that the bill will improve the lot of women in this country. 
It amazed me when I came to Parliament to see how socially liberal it is—and New Zealand society is amazingly liberal. One travels to other countries of the world and when one comes back one is just astounded sometimes at how socially liberal this country has become. What has it gained us? We have the third-highest teenage pregnancy rate in the OECD we have the highest youth suicide rate in the OECD and we have one of the highest youth crime rates in the OECD. We cannot say that the social liberalisation of New Zealand society has benefited this country in any way and I cannot stand here tonight and support Tim Barnett’s Prostitution Reform Bill because I do not believe that it will deliver anything that will benefit this society despite what Tim Barnett intended. 
I want to look at the under-18 issue because we have seen in the past that having an age limit does not work. Let us look at the drinking age. We reduced that to 18. People thought this country had matured enough to cope with that. Has it? I do not think so. There are 12-year-old kids going into our accident and emergency departments now who are drunk. All it has done is lower the barrier. Having an age limit of 18 will not in any way prevent younger women being forced into prostitution and we will see more people out there on the streets and in brothels because there are a large number of people who are prepared to exploit that situation. 
Certifying the operators of businesses of prostitution will not improve the situation for New Zealand women. Already today they can go to the sexually transmitted disease clinics and get good information and advice on how to maintain their sexual health. I would prefer that we were spending our time our energy and our money on looking at alcohol and drug addiction services and at all the things we need in mental health to try to improve the lot of some of our young people who are in serious difficult situations because they have grown up in highly fragmented social circumstances and are paying the price for that. If we put this House’s time money thoughts and energies into finding ways to improve the lot of those children—whom we know we can identify by the age of 3—and doing something about that we might do something about the situation in New Zealand.