Manukau taggers face fine of $2500

Two bills to remove prostitutes and graffiti from the streets of Manukau City were introduced into Parliament yesterday.

Prostitutes will be banned from plying their trade in public and graffiti vandals face fines of up to $2500 under tough measures aimed at cleaning up South Auckland.

The local bills, if passed, will make Manukau the first city in New Zealand to ban street prostitution and to introduce strict anti-graffiti laws.

The Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill makes it an offence, punishable by a $10,000 fine, for prostitutes to solicit or loiter in a public place.

Prostitutes' clients would also be liable for the fine.

The bill will not apply to people lawfully operating brothels.

Labour MP Tim Barnett, who championed the Prostitution Law Reform Act through Parliament, said the Manukau move would drive prostitution underground.

Mr Barnett said the "prohibitionist stance" would make criminals of sex workers even though they were not behaving in a harmful way.

South Auckland community worker Mama Tere said between 300 and 400 sex workers would be made "low-lifes" by the bill. "I feel our council doesn't see them as human beings."

The Manukau City Council (Control of Graffiti) Bill makes it an offence to graffiti in Manukau City, and people convicted would be liable for a $2500 fine.

The bill, if passed, will also make it an offence, punishable with a $1500 fine, to carry a graffiti device, such as a spray-can or marker pen, with the intention of using it to write graffiti.

Shopowners selling spray-paint will have to lock it away so the public cannot access it, and will be liable to a fine of $1500 if cans are stored incorrectly.

Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis said last night that both bills had the blessing of local police and the majority of the community.

"Our declaration of war on graffiti has scarcely resulted in a reduction and in fact some of the paint on bus shelters, public walls, public buildings, is probably an inch thick now.

"The people of Papatoetoe have had a gutsful [of street prostitution], and in other parts of Manukau, these people are parading themselves in the middle of the street, leaving all kinds of objectionable items on the sidewalk and outside business premises."

- additional reporting: Derek Cheng