Sex workers battle over turf

This alley behind the Manurewa shops leads to the disputed carpark. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Transvestite prostitutes are squaring off against schoolgirl sex workers over "territory" in a Manurewa carpark, a number of submissions to Parliament concerning South Auckland prostitution claim.

Hearings into the Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill - and an accompanying control of graffiti bill - will take place in Manukau from April 6.

Submissions for both bills closed on Friday, but the number filed - for either matter - will not be made public until later this week.

Other local authority-specific bills have previously been passed, but Manukau's anti-graffiti and anti-prostitution bills are unique.

Manukau councillor and Strategic Directions boss Colleen Brown wrote to Parliament's local government and environment committee about the prostitute problem.

Her submissions catalogued a number of unsavoury incidents alleged to be happening regularly in the Manurewa area.

They include reports of prostitutes in school uniforms getting in and out of customers' cars, workers arriving early to the office and finding prostitutes still working the footpath, and the abuse of parents and children on their way to and from Manurewa Central School.

One central Manurewa office worker said she had in the past been mistaken for a prostitute, and had been the object of would-be clients' attentions.

"I have been offered it and I have been asked for it."

She said she had regularly seen school-age sex workers congregating on the street outside her office, and brawling hookers were a common site outside the Great South Rd shopping precinct.

Fighting among the prostitutes happened regularly and schoolgirl sex workers were in and out of customers' cars "like a tag team", she said.

Many shop windows bear deep scratch marks, the work of vandals, and a real estate magazine stand cannot be left outside overnight or it becomes a makeshift urinal or fire grate.

The owner of one Manurewa business, who did not want to give her name, said some of her staff had been "absolutely terrified" by the threatening behaviour of the people lurking outside her door.

She said all she could tell staff was to "try to keep a friendly relationship" with the prostitutes and glue sniffers who congregated in the same area.

The woman, who feared the effect of adverse publicity on her business, said her problems did not exist before the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act in 2003.

She puts the cost to her business at thousands of dollars a year.

"It has cost me money, and I also worry about the staff retention.

"When staff say they don't want to come to work at night - and that's a core part of their business - that's a problem," she said.

Though none of her staff had been physically assaulted, the woman felt it "might be just around the corner".

"I feel annoyed, I feel angry and I feel sad that these people have no hope or anything better to do with their time ... than sit around destroying other people's good work."

The woman said she would attend the public hearings MPs would be holding into the bills.


Prostitution

The Manukau City Council (Control of Street Prostitution) Bill will make it an offence to solicit for prostitution in a public place. It applies to:
* Prostitutes and their clients.
* Conduct connected to prostitution.
* The bill will create new infringement offences, and provide police with the power to require information be supplied, and to arrest offenders.

Graffiti

The Control of Graffiti Bill will:
* Regulate the sale of spray paint in Manukau.
* Create fines of up to $2500 on conviction for painting graffiti.
* Issue spray infringement notices up to $300.
* Manukau City Council will have the power to remove graffiti on private land.