Uncertain future for Auckland brothels

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland City residents overwhelmingly are in favour of tough rules to keep the sex industry away from residential areas and schools and banned at street level.

Brothels, massage parlours and adult sex shops face an uncertain future after 80 per cent of submissions on the council's draft bylaw supported strict controls.

Half of the 947 submissions said the council should introduce even stricter controls, such as banning brothels within 2km of schools and places of worship and banning soliciting in residential areas. Just 16 per cent supported looser controls.

The sex industry and its supporters are heading for a showdown with schools, church groups and people opposed to brothels when the council begins hearing submissions on November 24 to implement rules under the new Prostitution Reform Act.

Deputy Mayor David Hay, who is opposed to brothels and believes the legislation "simply helps people sell women's bodies", said the submissions appeared to support the draft bylaw but the council had to take into account the views of those who supported brothels.

But Mr Hay said he was not sure extending the 250m distance rules between brothels and community facilities such as schools would provide any more protection. This was because the rule applied to shopping centres, not residential areas, where brothels were banned, he said.

Two members of Parliament who promoted prostitution reform, Labour's Tim Barnett and the Greens' Sue Bradford, have criticised the council's draft bylaw in their submission.

Measures to control small owner-operated brothels, ban brothels setting up within 75m of another brothel and banning brothels at street level were "inconsistent" with the act and the council's district plan, the MPs said.

The Prostitutes Collective also believed the draft bylaws were contrary to the intentions of the act and were unworkable and discriminatory.

Other concerns included:

* Street-level controls were discriminatory towards the disabled and elderly.

* Linking the word "massage" to the sex industry was offensive to massage therapists.

* Adult sex shops objected to being defined as commercial sex premises and the controls that went with that.

* The financial cost to brothels of moving location.

North Shore and Waitakere councils also made submissions saying Auckland City's tough rules could lead to brothels setting up in other areas of Auckland.

Mr Hay said if other councils had looser controls "then that indicates to me that they don't mind brothels".

The Maxim Institute, a social research and policy organisation which opposed the Government's prostitution reforms, supported the council in its submission but wanted tighter controls on signs to allow only business names and controls to ban pimping and soliciting in residential areas.

The Panmure Community Action Group "very strongly" supported the bylaws, saying the presence of brothels in their conservative, family-oriented shopping area was unpleasant and forced many residents to stop shopping in Panmure.

The council will make final decisions on the bylaw on December 18.

What the bylaw says

* Brothels banned in residential zones but can operate in many suburban shopping centres.

* Suburban brothels banned within 250m of schools, preschools, places of worship, community facilities and big transport interchanges.

* Suburban brothels cannot set up within 75m of an existing brothel.

* Central city brothels banned within 250m of primary, intermediate and secondary schools.

* Brothels cannot operate at ground level, with Amsterdam-style shop window displays.

* Brothel signs must be no bigger than 1m by 30cm, cannot be neon, flashing and sexually explicit.