MPs have voted to decriminalise prostitution in New Zealand. Picture / Reuters

MPs have voted to decriminalise prostitution in New Zealand. Picture / Reuters

9.00pm

Parliament tonight passed prostitution law changes when MPs voted 60-59 in favour of a bill which raised passionate debate and drew the strongest opposition from moral conservatives since homosexual law reform 17 years ago.

Labour MP Tim Barnett's Prostitution Reform Bill will become law after nearly three years of scrutiny, 415 hours of debate by Parliament and its committees and 222 public submissions.

It decriminalises prostitution and establishes a legal framework around the sex industry, with licensed brothels operating under public health and employment laws.

It reached its third reading in Parliament after narrow majorities at previous legislative stages, and when the crunch came there was just one vote that made the difference.

One MP abstained, Labour's Ashraf Choudhary, and if that had not happened there would have been a tied vote and the bill would not have passed.

In his final appeal, Mr Barnett asked Parliament to remove what he called outdated, biased and largely unenforced laws which left real problems untouched.

"Each member here has to live with their vote tonight for the rest of their lives," he said.

"Current law around prostitution wasn't designed to ensure the wellbeing of sex workers. It was planned around what I call a Kiwi prohibition.

"The state licenses massage parlours, knowing they are fronts for prostitution...there is no morality, no consistency in that."

MPs cast conscience votes on the bill, and were not bound by party policy.

National MP Nick Smith captured the essence of opposition from churches and others who have claimed that under the bill's provisions prostitute numbers would double or even treble.

"We must judge this not on whether it is good for sex workers, but whether it is good for New Zealand society," he said.

"Sex should not be for sale. Prostitution is nothing more than paid rape."

All the Green Party's MPs supported the bill and Sue Bradford asked her colleagues not to be swayed by the "classic wave of moral outrage" that had swept over them.