Baldock Larry: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
Baldock Larry: Prostitution Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5210] 
LARRY BALDOCK (United Future) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the title debate of this bill and as has been said earlier I do not believe that “Prostitution Reform Bill” is an adequate or fitting title for this legislation. I suggest that the more appropriate title would be the “Increased Profit and Control for Pimps and Human Flesh Exploiters Bill” because that really is what this bill is about. This industry is at the very least a multibillion-dollar industry—possibly a trillion-dollar industry—in the world. I hesitate even to use the word “industry” because it produces nothing of any benefit for society. But worldwide millions—billions—of dollars are made out of prostitution and I believe that this bill is about the opportunity to increase the profit for pimping and for brothel keeping. It is those aspects of the bill that disturb me the most. 
 I wish to draw a little parallel with the legislation that went through in 1999 about lowering the drinking age. I had a personal experience at that time when I made a submission to the select committee appealing to it—really pleading to it—to consider what that legislation would do to our society in New Zealand. And we have seen the fruit of it not just the lowering of the drinking age but the increased availability of alcohol and so on. We have seen what it has done to our young people. I remember Phil Goff who is now the Minister of Justice sitting in that select committee and I was very proud of him at that time. I considered him to be a man of integrity because he had the wisdom to know that that bill would not produce anything good for this country and he opposed it. 
But now as he sits as the Minister of Justice and makes a decision on this bill he believes that he can solve all the problems in this bill by just some amendments even though the amendments keep growing day by day as they find more and more problems with each amendment they put forward. I believe that Phil Goff understood then that that bill was not about the rights of 19 and 18-year-olds to be able to drink because they already were doing so but it was really about the increased sales potential and profits for the breweries. One year after that bill was passed I remember very clearly the headline in the paper saying “Lion Breweries increase sales 13 percent”. That was 1 year after that legislation was passed. 
I contend that it will be exactly the same if this bill is passed. We will see an increase in profit not just for nice employers but for black market employers and gangs. In fact articles are already appearing in newspapers about gangs already fighting over the turf that they will control when they can begin to operate more effectively. They already do operate but they will begin to gain even a greater market share as they are able to operate with impunity. 
This legislation opens the door for the increased control and commercialisation of sexual services that will benefit pimps and brothel owners not the poor individual prostitutes at the bottom of the supply chain. They will continue to be exploited by those who trade in human flesh and that is what it is all about. 
Most people in the public who support the bill do not understand what this bill does. They say: “I think it’s a good idea because it will make things better for prostitutes.” and that is quite a reasonable response. We all want to make life better for those who are in this very dehumanising occupation. But when one asks people in the public how it will benefit them they say “Well that’s what it’s supposed to do isn’t it? I mean that’s what we’ve heard in the press.” When one presses them a little further and asks them to tell us how it will accomplish that they really do not know. When it is explained to them that this bill actually legalises pimping and some of the implications of that they are shocked and immediately change their minds and begin to oppose the bill. Nobody in their right mind would want to decriminalise pimping in our society and to allow someone to profit from the sale of the flesh of someone else is to me absolutely appalling. It is the worst occupation that anybody could be involved with. 
I do not believe we are asking the right questions. Some of the concerns of those who support this bill have to do with the current complaints that some of the prostitutes who are working now in massage parlours—