Sex for sale everywhere, council told

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Every supermarket, pharmacy and video store in Auckland City is potentially an adult sex shop and could be closed down, according to a former senior council officer.

John Campbell, who is experienced in writing bylaws, said yesterday that the council's draft bylaws did not define a number of commercial sex premises, such as rap parlours and adult sex shops.

As a result, supermarkets and pharmacies could be defined as adult sex shops for selling contraceptives, as could video stores for hiring R18 movies.

Under new rules to control the sex industry in Auckland City, commercial sex premises will be restricted in the central city and banned from residential areas and at ground level.

Mr Campbell was speaking on the first day of public hearings into the council's proposed bylaws on brothels and commercial sex premises. The hearings are before six councillors sitting as independent commissioners - Juliet Yates, Bill Christian, Sheryl McKelvie, Graeme Mulholland, Noelene Raffills and Faye Storer.

Mr Campbell, who put together a bylaw covering massage parlours, said he believed the part of the proposed bylaw relating to commercial sex premises was unlawful.

Several submitters criticised the council for trying to use the new Prostitution Reform Act to pass bylaws controlling brothels as a reason to widen controls on commercial sex premises through its general bylaw-making powers under the Local Government Act.

Ema Lyon, a retailer of romantic gifts, sex toys and lingerie in Ponsonby Rd, objected to her business being classified as a commercial sex premise when it did not stock pornographic material.

She said bookshops that sold erotica, dairies that sold pornographic magazines and gift shops that sold romantic novelties did not face the same restrictions as her business, which could be stopped from operating at ground level.

Mrs Yates, the head commissioner, told Ms Lyon that under the consolidated bylaw her business could apply for a dispensation.

Lawyer Mark Andrews told the hearing he had been instructed to start legal proceedings if the council went ahead with the draft bylaw for commercial sex premises. The proposal was unreasonable, repugnant to the general laws of New Zealand and a breach of natural justice.

He was acting for former city councillor Jon Olsen, who owns a downtown building occupied by the striptease club Showgirls.

A prostitute and brothel owner, Holly Ryan, also threatened to sue the council if the draft bylaws forced her Sandringham business to move next June.

The former accountant and mother of four said she had invested $500,000 in the business.

"My business serves a community. A lot of my customers walk there. Disabled people can get there. Sex is a human right and a human need.

"Humans have three needs - food, sex and shelter. We have a huge range of food so why do we try and limit sex?" Ms Ryan said.

Other submitters, including the Maxim Institute social research organisation and the Women's Health Action Trust, strongly supported the council's tough stand on the sex industry.

Trust directors Jo Fitzpatrick and Sandra Coney said brothels were not like other businesses, and the purpose of the act was to limit harm.

They sought changes to the bylaws, including a ban on brothels in residential developments and apartments and stopping brothels setting up near foreign-language schools to prevent the recruitment of prostitutes among this "vulnerable population".

The proposed bylaw

* Brothels banned in residential zones but can operate in many suburban shopping centres.

* Suburban brothels banned within 250m of schools, preschools, places of worship, community facilities and big transport interchanges.

* Suburban brothels cannot be set up within 75m of an existing brothel.

* Central city brothels banned within 250m of primary, intermediate and secondary schools.

* Brothels cannot operate at ground level, with Amsterdam-style shop window displays.

* Brothel signs must be no bigger than 1m by 30cm, cannot be neon, flashing or sexually explicit.