Baldock Larry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Baldock Larry: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:610;Page:7511] 
5.  
LARRY BALDOCK (United Future) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: What progress if any has been made in establishing the Prostitution Law Review Committee and when does he expect it will carry out its responsibility to “assess the number of persons working as sex workers in New Zealand”? 
Hon RICK BARKER (Associate Minister of Justice) 
 on behalf of the 
 Minister of Justice 
: The Minister has written to those Ministers who are required by the Act to nominate people for the Prostitution Law Review Committee to seek a meeting as a first step towards establishing the committee. The committee will carry out its responsibility to assess the number of persons working as sex workers in New Zealand as soon as practicable after it is established. To assist with this task the Ministry of Justice is currently doing some preliminary work in looking at how this research could be carried out. 
Larry Baldock 
: In the light of the comments by the Police Association president Greg O’Connor in today’s  
Dominion Post 
 
that gangs are now planning to move into prostitution more quickly than he first thought will the Minister also establish a full inquiry into the involvement of organised crime in prostitution at the present time so that the effects of the new Act in that regard are able to be measured? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: I will certainly ask the Minister of Justice to take up the matter that has been alluded to in the newspaper but it would be premature to initiate an inquiry if there has been no established problem at this stage. 
Martin Gallagher 
: Could the Minister remind the Parliament of the membership that this Parliament decided the Prostitution Law Review Committee should have? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Parliament decided that the Prostitution Law Review Committee should comprise 11 members to be appointed by the Minister of Justice. The members are to be nominated by the Minister of Justice Minister of Police Minister of Health Minister of Commerce Minister of Women’s Affairs Minister of Youth Affairs and Minister of Local Government and by the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective. Nominations will be sought following my meeting with Ministers shortly. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Now that prostitution has been decriminalised and the review committee has been set up will it be easier to not only assess the number of persons who are working as sex workers in New Zealand but also to assist them to leave the profession if they so choose? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: Having looked at the terms of reference for the committee I do not see that it is the committee’s responsibility to assist workers to leave the profession. It certainly should be easier to identify how many people are working in the profession. 
Larry Baldock 
: Does the Minister accept that the Prostitution Law Review Committee faces a credibility problem when all the nominations for appointment to it are made by Ministers who voted for the legislation and who would therefore have a potential interest in ensuring that the committee’s final report reflected favourably on the law change; if so will he allow other parties in the House to make recommendations on appointments to ensure that the review committee is balanced in its assessments? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: If that member wishes to communicate his views on the matter to the Minister of Justice I am sure the Minister would listen to any recommendations he might make. 
Larry Baldock 
: Noting that we do not currently have accurate assessments on the sex industry in New Zealand does the Minister accept that the information on prostitution supplied to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women by the Government last October—namely that “the incidence of trafficking of women appears to have diminished in recent years”—was potentially misleading in the absence of an accurate profile of the sex industry? 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: I would not like to comment on that particular assertion without any thorough analysis.