Baldock Larry: Prostitution Reform Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Baldock Larry: Prostitution Reform Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4467] 
LARRY BALDOCK (United Future) 
: 
 It will be no surprise to anybody in the Chamber but I will be voting against the title. I believe that the intent of the bill would be indicated by the “Society Reform Bill” rather than the Prostitution Law Reform Bill. A lot has been said tonight about hidden agendas and I suggest there could well be a hidden agenda behind even the title of this bill. When we look at the bill and what it is trying to do and what it is actually going to achieve it is not about really improving the lives of prostitutes in this country. It is about trying to change society’s attitude towards prostitution. It wants to reform society’s attitude. Although we have heard some speakers earlier say we should be tolerant and accepting of what is done between consenting adults it is amazing how often they then turn round and say we are bigoted because we have a moral stand on something; that somehow or other we are out of line. All the tolerance goes out of the window. Suddenly we are the ones with baggage we are the ones with childhood hang-ups. But actually we are the ones who are fighting for something that is very very important. 
I have not heard anybody throughout this whole debate since I joined the Justice and Electoral Committee show me any evidence of anywhere in the world where liberalisation of prostitution laws has resulted in protection for children under age; where it has resulted in healthier happier and more wholesome prostitutes. The evidence simply does not exist. 
What is really the situation in New Zealand right now with prostitution? I heard many times in the select committee that there were 8000 prostitutes in New Zealand. That figure has been quoted by the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective on many many occasions. Yet tonight I heard Tim Barnett say there are 5000 prostitutes. I do not know what has happened to 3000 prostitutes in the last few weeks but I rather suspect that it is because we have begun to realise that 8000 prostitutes in this country puts us at the highest per capita rate of prostitution of anywhere in the world; that suddenly there has been a recognition by those who are in favour of this bill that they need to shrink that number in order to avoid that label. 
If we have 8000 prostitutes then we have a ratio of 0.2 percent per head of population. Holland which is known as the most liberal nation in the world with regard to prostitution as has been said already has a ratio of 0.16 percent. Nobody in his or her right mind would say on a visit to Holland that the prostitution situation there is healthy and wholesome and has resulted in no exploitation of women or that it has managed to protect children from getting involved in under-age prostitution. 
In fact I spoke recently to the president of the Police Association who has made a personal trip to Holland to study the situation and he came back convinced that if we follow the direction that is outlined in this bill we will end up with a situation very similar to that which exists in Holland. The only nation I have been able to discover that has anything like a positive move with regard to prostitution is Sweden which has a ratio of only 0.03 percent per head of population. Sweden has only 2500 prostitutes so that is a much much smaller ratio than what we have in New Zealand. 
We have heard a lot about the Swedish model and what it would produce. Tim Barnett has mentioned there are 500 prostitutes being trafficked into Sweden as a result of its law change—which has 80 percent approval within its population I might add. But that 500 figure has to be taken into account with the 100000 women who are trafficked across the borders in Europe every year. That is 100000 women who are drawn into prostitution. These are not women who go into prostitution to make some money to help get out of a lifestyle that they do not like; these are women who are taken into slavery. I hope there will be time during this debate for me to show members a movie in the parliamentary theatre that is based upon the true life story of a 16-year-old woman taken from Russia and into prostitution in Sweden. Because that shows the reality of what we are talking about. 
Those who are in favour of this bill I can only describe as well-meaning but very naive people who are putting their heads in the sand in the hope that simply because we want something to happen and because we pass a law for it to happen it will happen.