Church leaders mount last effort to halt prostitution bill

Labour MP Tim Barnett has accused a group of church leaders of arrogance and ignorance in their arguments against decriminalising prostitution.

Mr Barnett has sponsored the Prostitution Reform Bill which he believes has the numbers to pass into law this week.

There was a group of 62 or 63 MPs who had consistently voted for the legislation "and I'm pretty confident we're going to get that support on Wednesday", Mr Barnett said today.

A group of bishops and other church leaders is making a last ditch effort to stop the bill.

They have written to all MPs saying the bill does not serve the interests of prostitutes or New Zealand society.

At the heart of its objections was that the bill normalised prostitution, group spokesman Bishop Richard Randerson said today.

He told National Radio that the people who would benefit from the bill were those who worked in massage parlours, were intelligent, mature, articulate, self-confident and those who were more than 18 years of age.

Less than half of all prostitutes worked in massage parlours. Many were young, vulnerable, unable to speak for themselves and had drug addictions, he said.

Church leaders were not convinced the bill offered much protection to this group, the letter said.

"The normalising of prostitution sends a message that the commercial selling of one's body is an acceptable function in society and will draw many other young and vulnerable people into the business."

The letter was signed by Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, Salvation Army, Baptist leaders and Anglican Deans of Cathedrals.

Mr Barnett told National Radio the legislation was based "on exactly the kind of values and beliefs that I would have thought the church leaders would share and I'm astonished by the ignorance of the statement".

"What we're trying to do is create better law. The fact that many sex workers may take drugs is utterly nothing to do with creating a fairer legal environment."

He said the church leaders' letter was inaccurate, for instance, in saying "that the law in Sweden, which criminalises every client in the sex industry, has actually led to a reduction in prostitution". "There's absolutely no evidence of that and you can't possibly have researched that."

It was also wrong for a group of 30 men and two women to say that this bill, which had been worked on by women's groups and the Prostitutes' Collective for the past 15 years, did not serve the best interests of prostitutes, Mr Barnett said, adding that was pretty close to "arrogance".

Prostitution was a reality and normal activity for the 5000 prostitutes in New Zealand.

Criminalisation drove sex workers underground "into the most dangerous environments", Mr Barnett said.

- NZPA