Mackey Moana: Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill — Second Reading 
Mackey Moana: Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5673] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to take a call on the Manukau City Council (Control of Prostitution) Bill. I have to say I agree with the previous speaker that we all understand that the sentiments behind this bill are laudable. We have a community that feels frustrated with a problem but like the previous speaker I do not feel that this bill will address that problem and more so I actually feel that this bill could compound further problems in what is already a very delicate and vulnerable area particularly concerning the safety and health of prostitutes or sex workers. 
We have heard a lot of people talking in this House tonight about how concerned they are for sex workers and how they feel that the Prostitution Reform Act dealt them a blow. I say to those members that maybe they want to spend some of their spare time working with the many groups who do work with sex workers if they are as concerned as that about their health and safety. They should spend some of their time working with those groups and working with the many groups that help to get sex workers out of the industry. 
I was not in the House when the Prostitution Reform Act went through but one of the arguments that came through in the media that really convinced me the most was the fact that for those workers who do want to leave the industry the hardest thing—the thing that locks them in—is the criminal record they get when they are prosecuted with a sex crime. It limits them from working in many other areas and tars them for life. I thought that was a very very powerful argument. 
We have heard from many people tonight who have gone in and looked at the area we are talking about. We have had various numbers on how many sex workers are operating in those areas—from three four or five up into the 60s and 70s. I would have liked to know from the people who have gone in there and have given us the very high numbers how often they went into those areas before the Prostitution Reform Act was passed and saw how things were going in those areas then. Like many of the issues that come to this House that end up being very emotional and very heated a lot of it comes from a position of quite frankly ignorance of an issue that has never really come to the fore previously. We have not gone out and seen what the reality is because it has never come up in the political arena. We are all very busy; we are all looking at many things. 
Then all of a sudden an issue like prostitution—or youth drinking or many other issues—comes in. A spotlight is put on it. Suddenly we see the reality that many vulnerable New Zealanders live with every day. We do not like it and we should not like it. But the fact is that it is very hard to say that New Zealand has gone to the dogs now when people did not go out there to see what the situation was beforehand. Because it was illegal we were not able to collect statistics whereby we would have been able to survey what was happening. Most of it was underground because to admit that it happened was to admit that a criminal offence was being committed. So it is very difficult to say that things are so so much worse now. 
I suspect that for a long time in New Zealand we have had a very big problem with under-age prostitution. The law now has far more teeth. Of course since the Prostitution Reform Act was passed we have seen prosecutions which is something we never saw in this country before. 
I say to all members of this House that at any point when we are discussing prostitution it is important to remember that I doubt there are many industries in this country that are as reliant on market forces as prostitution. The fact is that if people stopped buying those services there simply would not be a problem. It is all too easy to stand up here and vilify prostitutes vilify what they do and ignore the fact that many of us even though we do not realise it probably know people who partake in those services on a regular basis. They are probably people who do not live up to the stereotype that too often we hear about when we are all engaging in a very political debate about prostitution and what we believe its reality is. 
Across the country since the Prostitution Reform Act was passed we have seen a variety of changes. I know that in my home town of Gisborne for example the local brothel has closed since the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act. I do not know whether that had anything to do with the Act. I suspect again it was more likely to be market forces and other things and the fact that now everyone knew where it was it made it far more difficult for clients to go there without being recognised. But that is an issue that we have had for a long time. 
I agree that where there is under-age prostitution we need to be absolutely adamant that we will not settle for that. The fact is that we now have a law that allows us to put some teeth behind it. We have removed many of the difficulties that stopped prostitutes from working indoors in areas where they were far safer. As Mr Blumsky said there is a myriad of laws that already deal with public nuisance. If people are being hassled on the street if people are finding things offensive there is already a myriad of laws that can deal with that. It is amusing that many people will stand up in this House and argue that they do not like laws that are prescriptive they do not like laws that do things that other laws already do but they are now saying that that is exactly what they would want to do here. 
In summary I think that we all understand why this bill is here. I congratulate George Hawkins on bringing it to this House. I know that he is a very powerful local advocate and that he always speaks up for his community but this certainly is not the bill that will deal to the problem. If this issue is a problem in South Auckland it is probably also a problem in other places. If there is a genuine issue that needs to be dealt with it should be dealt with on a consistent basis across the whole country not just in one part of it. I suspect that many of the votes tonight will be along purely political lines and not necessarily about the fact that this bill will affect only one part of the country. 
The bill will not achieve what it wants to achieve but it is an important debate to have when we are 1 year and a bit out from a review of the Prostitution Reform Act. I ask members to remember when they are going out prior to that review and prior to this becoming an issue again to talk about what it was like beforehand to the people who know. I get the sense that sometimes people say they do not want to talk to the sex workers themselves or to the Prostitutes Collective necessarily because they will not be given the kind of opinion that will go against the kinds of changes they want to see in the law. But they are the people who know because they deal with this every single day. They do not come in one day a year have a look on one night and decide what happens. They deal with this every day and they have the best interests of those workers at hand. 
Sex workers are some of the most vulnerable workers in this country. They work in an industry that personally I do not understand. I suspect that a lot of them get into it from necessity rather than from anything else but that does not mean we should use them and use the law to vilify what they do and to make their position even more vulnerable because we do not like the act that is carried out. At the end of the day if people were not buying these services then we would not have the problems we have. I sometimes think that people who stand up in this House and talk about prostitution forget that most important fact.