Council bill 'bad for sex workers'

Manukau City Council's bid to control street prostitution shows a callous disregard for sex workers' human rights, the Prostitutes Collective says.

Collective national co-ordinator Catherine Healy yesterday told a parliamentary select committee considering the Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill that the philosophy of the bill contrasted drastically with the Prostitution Law Reform Act, and would eliminate the legislation's positive effects for sex workers.

"This bill reinforces the stigma that ensures sex workers stand apart from society," Ms Healy said.

"Criminalising a behaviour does not eliminate it. Criminalising the behaviour only drives it underground, making it harder to reach the people concerned, thus endangering their well-being."

If passed, the bill would make it an offence to solicit for prostitution in public in Manukau. Several other local bodies are closely following the progress of the legislation, with the intention of seeking similar laws for their areas if Manukau succeeds.

The Human Rights Commission shared the Prostitutes Collective's concerns about the bill, which it called "fundamentally flawed".

"It breaches aspects of the New Zealand Bill of Rights as well as a number of international human rights instruments, is a disproportionate and inappropriate response to the problem and, if introduced at this point, will pre-empt the 2008 review of the Prostitution Reform Act."

The commission said it appeared little effort had been made by the council and the Government to address the underlying social and economic reasons for prostitution in Manukau, and the most likely effect of the bill would simply be to move the problem elsewhere.