Bill to drive sex off city streets passes first stage

A bill that makes soliciting for sex in a public place an offence in Manukau City passed its first stage in Parliament last night.

The Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill applies to prostitutes and their clients, and gives police the power to arrest offenders.

It will not affect the provisions of the Prostitution Reform Act covering prostitution on private premises.

Manurewa MP George Hawkins presented the bill on behalf of the council, telling Parliament that street sex-workers were a serious problem.

"The council contends that soliciting makes people feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and is a general nuisance," he said.

"It encourages gangs and criminal behaviour, illicit drugs and substance abuse and intimidating behaviour.

"What really annoys people is that it has a huge impact on the community - condoms are left in school grounds and in shop doorways. This isn't a fair go."

Mr Hawkins said he knew the bill would be contentious, but it was not intended to re-criminalise prostitution.

"If the council could have solved this by itself, it would have."

He said Manukau was a young city with 40 per cent of its population under 25. In June 2003, police established that there were 326 sex-workers in the Counties Manukau area and 150 of them were street-workers.

National MP David Carter said his party would support the bill going to a select committee.

He said MPs who opposed the Prostitution Reform Act had warned it would lead to an increase in street sex-workers.

"It shows how naive those MPs were who supported it ... we made prostitution a legitimate profession.

"This bill is an innovative solution to a disastrous piece of social engineering."

New Zealand First and United Future supported the bill but the Greens and the Maori Party opposed it.

Green MP Sue Bradford said it flew in the face of the Prostitution Reform Act, which "decriminalises prostitution and we object to a local territorial body trying to reverse this".

"We also object to the council giving police the authority to engage in entrapment exercises, such as pretending to be prostitutes and enticing customers."

Maori Party MP Hone Harawira said most street sex-workers in Manukau were Maori and working-class mothers.

He said they would be fined large sums that they would not be able to pay, and they would end up in jail.

"Sex-workers will stop carrying condoms because they could be used in evidence.

"They will be less likely to report crimes against themselves."

Mr Harawira also objected to the proposed police powers.

He said that under one clause, police would be exempt from prosecution if they were operating under written instruction from a senior officer.

"What that means, in simple terms, is that if a cop has a note from a sergeant he can break the law to make an arrest.

"The powers of the police under this bill are like those the United States is using to apprehend and jail suspects in Afghanistan and Iraq - on the basis that they have reasonable grounds to do so."

The bill passed its first reading on a 109-11 vote and was sent to the local government select committee for public submissions.


Proposed law

* Prostitutes or clients could be fined $10,000 for soliciting or loitering for the purpose of prostitution in a public place.

* Police would be able to demand information from people if there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they had committed an offence, and anyone refusing to give information could be fined $5000.

- NZPA