Duncan Helen: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
Duncan Helen: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5755] 
HELEN DUNCAN (NZ Labour) 
: 
 This is the first time I have risen to speak in the debates on this bill. I accept that all who are speaking in the House tonight have sincerely held beliefs and I want to declare my support for this bill. It is interesting that many members have got up and said that prostitution increases whenever it is decriminalised. There are absolutely no statistics to support that point of view. The reality is that before decriminalisation most of the activity was underground outside the law and not counted. Therefore all that happens is that there is an increase in visibility but not necessarily an increase in the activity. 
It is interesting how many people have stood up in this House and talked about the degradation that attaches to the act of prostitution. That is their opinion but according to what they have said in this Chamber they are not people who have engaged in that act. I have talked to a number of prostitutes and people from the Prostitutes Collective who do not see what they do as degrading to them. If it is an activity that they are indulging in through free choice then there is nothing degrading about it. Some of us have done jobs that we have found pretty degrading over the years. I find cleaning other people’s toilets rather degrading but when I was short of money as a student I did that. So whether it is degrading is the decision of the person who is engaging in the activity. 
It is interesting too that members over there do not take into account some of the very moving submissions that have been made by people with disabilities about their use of prostitutes. They did not find the activity degrading and I am sure that those sex workers who helped those people out and who provided that service did not find it a degrading activity. Much is made about the fact that prostitution is not currently illegal but if the act of soliciting is illegal then that effectively makes the act of prostitution illegal because one cannot get any clients for one’s work if one cannot solicit. I say to members of this Committee that if there is a willing buyer and a willing seller there is no crime. I do not believe that the State has any need to take any interest in what consenting adults do in private. 
I do believe that some of the amendments that have been put before the Committee will be useful. I do not wish to see the activity of prostitution advertised in picture theatres in movies on television or on the front pages of our newspapers any more than I support the advertising of alcohol or cigarettes in that way. I do not support prostitution being advertised but that does not mean that I wish to prohibit the activity. I think it is somewhat arrogant for members of this House to decide that they know what is right and what is wrong. Everyone has his or her own deeply held moral code but what I think is immoral—for example taking excess profits treating workers badly or paying them less than a living wage—is not necessarily a view shared by a number of people in this House. Members are entitled to their point of view but I do not find the activity of prostitution immoral. Members should think very carefully before they make judgments that are based on their deeply held beliefs. They are entitled to live their lives as they wish to live them and to hold fast to their own moral code—and I expect that they would and should because we find self-fulfilment in life by holding on to those things that we believe in deeply. However members should not impose their beliefs on other people. Other people have a right to their own beliefs and moral code and they should have the right to practise their own moral code as long as it does not interfere with the rights of others. 
This bill does provide protection for young people—prostitution is only legal over the age of 18. If the activity is legal it will be easier to police and therefore easier to protect young people.