Rachel Smalley: Banning sex workers from streets a wrong move

New Zealand First's prostitution reform amendment bill wants to get sex workers off the streets and into brothels. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand First's prostitution reform amendment bill wants to get sex workers off the streets and into brothels - in other words, end street prostitution altogether.

The party is, not surprisingly, very black and white on this issue, but it's not quite as simple as that.

Some, not all, but some street workers have addiction issues and that's why they work on the street. You have to be clean to work in a licensed brothel. If you're on drugs, you're out the door.

I spent some time in Christchurch with the city's street workers. It was in the days that followed the February 22 earthquake in 2011. I was hosting Nightline on TV3 back then and we were broadcasting from the city. It was pitch black - there was no power at all, and after the programme I use to have to negotiate my way through the broken streets in the pitch black without street lights. Not as easy as it sounds.

I would drive down Manchester street most nights and I would to see these shadowy figures on the footpath. I realised that even though the city was deserted, women were still trying to work the street.

And so I used to stop and talk to them. I'd often spend a couple of hours out on street sometimes and we'd talk about their business. They'd tell me about their clients, how the earthquake had affected them, their concerns about money.

It became pretty obvious that some had drug habits. I met one woman - I'll call her Sharon - who I got to know quite well. She invited me back to her house during the day for a cup of tea. I went along and her house was immaculate. She had two beautiful, well dressed children, but she had an addiction - something she succumbed to, she said, once the children were in bed.

So when I look at New Zealand First's prostitution reform amendment bill, I think of Sharon, and I know that it won't work for this woman. She can't work in a brothel because she has a drug addiction. It would push her underground and make her less visual, and therefore more vulnerable to abuse or violent behaviour. This bill would be a disaster for her.

I understand New Zealand First's position on this. The party is siding with communities who say they don't want street workers plying their trade outside their homes, and I understand why that's a problem in residential areas. But I think the better option would be to specify a road or places where street workers can operate - an area that is visual, accessible and where police can patrol. A road where there isn't residential housing.

In the city, K-road works well. I sometimes run down K-road in the early hours of the morning. Some of the street workers talk to me. We yell out to each other about how lousy the weather is or how cold it is. I tell them to keep warm, they tell me I'm mad to be running. They're probably not wrong. I often see the police out on the beat too, walking that road. They talk to the women too. It works. It feels safe.

You can't create a K-road in the suburbs and you wouldn't want to, but you will never take women off the streets. You just won't. But there is a way to make it work for everyone and a dedicated road in a non-residential area, I think, is the best option.