Carter Chris: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
Carter Chris: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5237] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 I have not yet spoken on this bill not because I do not have an opinion or feel that these issues are important but because I have not had the opportunity. I am very pleased I have been chosen out of those members who have risen to seek the call. I strongly support this legislation. Like most members I have received many letters on the subject. I have endeavoured to reply to every one of them and not just with a sentence or a single paragraph. I hope I have sent out a reasoned response based on a lot of thought about the issue. 
For many years before becoming a politician I was a teacher so the welfare of young people is very important to me. It was my professional background and it is something that I am very concerned about. While I would be very unhappy to have seen any of my former pupils become sex workers no doubt some of them have because that is unfortunately a reality of society. It seems always to have been an aspect of human life. Prostitution is often referred to as the “oldest profession” and I am sure there is a lot of truth in that saying. It is a reality that is found in all communities and all countries. 
How are we to deal with that reality? Do we hide our heads in the sand? Do we ignore it? Do we just hope that somehow by ignoring it it will go away? It will never go away. It has always been with us. It is a reality. If we accept it as a reality how do we best treat it? 
We have a dilemma. I am sure no one in this Chamber would want to send out a positive message that being a sex worker is both an admirable and a welcome profession. Many people have spoken eloquently in this Chamber about how they would not want their children to be prostitutes. I fully accept and understand that position. I imagine that every person in this Parliament accepts that position. 
However coming back to my earlier point the reality is that some people do become sex workers. How do we make that choice? How do we make that reality better for those people? How do we make it safer for those people? How do we make it safer for the community? How do we keep crime out of it? How do we make it healthier and stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases some of which are fatal—for instance HIV/AIDS which the previous speaker Mr Baldock spoke about? How do we deal with those issues? 
This bill from my colleague and friend Mr Barnett is a step in that direction. It offers greater protection for young people. It seeks to make it easier for the police the Children Young Persons and their Families Service and the Department of Social Welfare to deal with the problem of young people getting into the sex industry. It increases the powers to stop that happening. It will not stop it completely of course but it improves it. 
It also improves the ability of health professionals to monitor the health and well-being of sex workers. It allows local authorities to regulate and make safer the practices of people involved in the sex industry. Those are admirable important and positive things to do. 
I know that many members of this Committee are concerned that this bill sends out a message that it is OK to be a sex worker or good to be a sex worker. I fully accept the view of the member for Christchurch Central that that is not the message he is wanting to send. The mission of the member who is promoting this bill is to try to protect young people in a better and more effective way. He is trying to make in particular the sexual health of sex workers better to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted disease and to keep young people out of this profession. By bringing this industry out of the twilight he is also trying and attempting in a more successful way to deal with the issue of organised crime in the sex industry. The select committee that dealt with this issue and people in this Parliament who have experience—in fact we have a member who was a sex worker—have spoken about the problems of organised crime and of gangs being involved in the sex industry. This legislation will help to address that question which is very important. For all these reasons I support the bill.