Fairbrother Russell: Prostitution Reform Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Fairbrother Russell: Prostitution Reform Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:607;Page:4464] 
RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER (NZ Labour—Napier) 
: 
 I rise in support of the title of this bill and I will be voting in favour of it. I will be doing that because of the word “reform”. The word “reform” in this bill is not to be interpreted as those who have been addressing this issue so far say to change the law that has been operating because no laws have effectively been operating. That was demonstrated by my learned colleague the Minister of Justice who said that in June of 2001 he passed the Crimes Amendment Act for the prosecution of those people who used children in pornography. To my knowledge there have been no such prosecutions. That tells us one of two things. Either all the talk in this Parliament about child prostitution in this country and all the billboards by well-funded reactive elements by the airports that talk about child prostitution are not basing their arguments on fact. Or it tells us that the police do not know what is going on out there and are not able to enforce the law. 
So on the evidence itself of an amendment to the Crimes Act in 2001 we clearly either do not have child prostitution or we have no way of detecting it. It may well be the latter. In the police report which is appendix B to this bill the police say: “Due to the hidden nature of the sex industry there is very little quantitative data available on the numbers of people involved.” I want members to reflect on that. If we do not know whether there is a problem how can we make those assertions about the problem? If we do not know how big the problem is assuming there is one how can we make any changes? We hear figures from this well-funded institute the Maxim Institute which has got to the churches and we see form letters and it quotes the increase in prostitution in New South Wales. The one fault in that argument is that no one knew what the starting point was. So when one gets those inflammatory figures one must say that someone has a hidden agenda here. And the hidden agenda is an agenda based upon a moral position and people attempting to impose their moral position on other people who do not share it. 
I have huge respect for the churches. I have huge respect for every person who has copied the Maxim Institute form letter and sent it to me because they are taking part in democracy. But unfortunately I cannot fail to be convinced that they are other than pawns in some bigger campaign. Their fear of doom is being parlayed by other people who should know better—to thwart the bill’s going through this House. 
The reason this bill is well named as a reform bill has been ignored by all speakers I have heard thus far. The word “reform” goes on through the life of this legislation at least for the first 3 to 5 years and is contained in clause 9N of the bill. The bill establishes that a Prostitution Law Review Committee must be set up. It has two responsibilities. It must assess the number of persons working as sex workers in New Zealand and any prescribed matters relating to sex workers or prostitution and it must report on its findings to the Minister of Justice. Then no sooner than the expiry of 3 years but before the expiry of 5 years there must be a review of the operation of the Act since its commencement. There must be an assessment of the impact of the Act on the number of people working as sex workers and on any prescribed matters relating to sex workers or prostitution. It must assess the nature and adequacy of the means available to assist persons. It must consider whether any changes are necessary to the law. It must consider the overall picture. Once we have a starting point from which we can look at reform we can stand up in this Parliament and argue sensibly. We can put our personal bandwagons to one side we can stop our inhibitions that are motivated by fear we can put our childhood hang-ups on the hook at the back door and we can say: this is the data we have; either there is no problem or if there is we can apply our collective intelligence and bring in a change. And then we are talking about reform. Until then we are shooting the breeze and we are expressing our own individual fears and hang-ups. 
I want those who have foreshadowed doom already and made a mockery of the title of this bill by proposing fatuous amendments to just reflect on this. If they will continue on that line they will not be passing any law that has any rational sense. They will make the lives of many people miserable including those men who use prostitutes.