Tamihere John: Prostitution Reform Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Tamihere John: Prostitution Reform Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4479] 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Minister of Youth Affairs) 
: 
 I want to take a short call in support of the bill. I do so on this basis. This bill is not as Deborah Coddington would have us believe about personal responsibility and liberty. Personal responsibility and liberty are about having a range of opportunities and choosing options on an informed basis when one has the capacity to participate in them. Those people who are afflicted by working in this industry in terms of prostitution are often exploited and vulnerable. They often come from communities that are easily exploited in terms of their social and economic class in society and in particular are Maori. But lately and more in terms of numbers they have been Asian. Those issues are of great to concern to us. 
I wanted to agree with Paul Adams with regard to male folk’s love of sex. I do think that it is reciprocated but I could not mislead the House because I cannot possibly talk about that from experience. I just think that. 
I support the bill and the amendments in the name of my senior colleague the Minister of Justice the Hon Phil Goff on this basis. I come from a family in which I was brought up by a very strong Catholic mother and I went to Catholic schools. So when a paper is tabled in the House from my own bishops that is a very clear steer to me. Notwithstanding that I do not accept that paper for a bunch of reasons. I say we should come clean about what occurs here. Does prostitution happen? Of course it does. 
Sandra Goudie 
: Are you sure? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I am sure and I will come to that right now. 
John Key 
: You are not making a personal statement are you? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: There is an issue about a rite of passage for want of a better term. Whether one has been to a mate’s stag party or wherever one may have been with one’s mates in one’s teenage years—and I appreciate that Murray McCully has never been to any of those joints—I want to say that I have been to them. I just acknowledge in terms of my growing up and the communities that I mixed within that those things have occurred. 
Stephen Franks 
: Did you inhale? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I have inhaled. Bill Clinton might not have inhaled but I think a number of us have. I just want to put that caveat on my position. 
My only concern in supporting the amendments in the name of my senior colleagues Phil Goff and Lianne Dalziel is that there are not enough for want of a better term belts and braces around the support of the vulnerable—[ 
Interruption 
]—and John Key knows more about those than me. My concern is that there are not enough protection mechanisms in place for those who are exploited and vulnerable and who may see prostitution as the only option available to them. In the event that this bill is supported to the extent that it goes through the House we need to put in a lot of effort into ensuring that there are enough support mechanisms and groups in our communities for our womenfolk in particular—but of late there has been a larger incidence of young males—who have difficulties. It is very important that this legislation is not seen as the legitimisation of the only opportunity those people have in terms of turning a buck. I say it is very important that we put in place a number of support mechanisms to ensure that the exploited and the vulnerable are not pursued to the extent that prostitution is the only way they have of getting out of their difficulties. To that extent I will be supporting this bill.