KEY POINTS:
It can't be much of a life being a street walker.
To find yourself standing on a corner, offering yourself to anyone who'll have you, sometimes for as little as the price of a packet of fags, is to find yourself at the bottom of the heap.
I can't imagine what life must be like for the women - and men - of the street to consider this a legitimate and viable way to make money. Well, to try to make money.
Sometimes, these hookers work all night and don't get a red cent. If their customers renege on a promise to pay them, who are the hookers going to complain to? They're too old, or young, or diseased, or ugly, or addicted to get jobs in legitimate brothels that offer a level of personal and physical protection. So they take their chances with all comers.
But while I have a certain amount of sympathy for the streetwalkers,
I also have sympathy for the businesspeople of South Auckland who've had enough of the plethora of prostitutes.
Several South Auckland business associations want the Government to amend laws governing prostitution so restrictions can be put on the street walkers who are making their lives a misery.
Groups from South Auckland and Panmure, with community board members and local councillors, say that since the decriminalisation of prostitution in 2003, the number of hookers has grown exponentially.
Customers, who don't want to be propositioned by toothless crones, trannies and underage girls, and who object to stepping around used condoms, broken booze bottles and syringes, are staying away.
People who are proud of their community don't want it known as the King's Cross of Auckland.
Some are taking matters into their own hands by approaching the customers, taking down their numberplates and telling them to get back to their own neighbourhoods.
Anecdotally, the residents of Papatoetoe and Manurewa say the men who come prowling are from other parts of Auckland and are taking advantage of South Auckland's notoriety as Sin Central.
Those who work with the prostitutes to try to get them off the street say that criminalising the girls won't make a blind bit of difference.
They have nothing to lose by being convicted and fined. They have no shame. They have no reputation to lose. The customers are another story. These social workers told me I'd be amazed to know who's curb crawling, looking for sex.
Apparently, very young - as in underage - and heavily pregnant girls, are the most wanted by middle-aged men, many of whom don't even bother to put the baby seat in the back of their late model sedan in the boot.
I have no problem at all with consenting adults doing what they like with one another. There's nowt so queer as folk and there are many, many reasons why prostitution is known as the oldest profession.
But in the case of South Auckland, it's not just a matter between two people. The entire community is being affected and surely the community's concerns are just as legitimate and valid as those of the hookers and their clients.
Criminalisation is not the answer, I accept that. But the laws we do have should be used more effectively. The National Council of Women came out last week and said men were the only winners of the prostitution law reforms.
They said they were disturbed that men who were convicted of buying sex from 12- and 13-year-olds were given light sentences and name suppression, and they wanted to see tougher penalties applied to offenders.
Perhaps the South Auckland naming and shaming is the way to go. After all, if it's legal, the men who prowl South Auckland looking for sex shouldn't mind having their photos posted on a website, should they? Unless they know, that deep in their hearts, picking up desperate, sad humans for the cheapest possible sex, is exploitative, dangerous and wrong.
