Parliament Buildings

Wellington

Good afternoon – present and former colleagues, distinguished guests.

 

It is my pleasure to join you today to mark the five years since the final vote was taken on the Prostitution Reform Bill.  Those who have spoken before me have talked about the history to the Bill and how decriminalisation of prostitution contributed to a suite of measures that successive New Zealand governments have taken to promote the health and wellbeing of all its citizens.  So I shall focus my comments on what followed on from the passage of the Bill and that is the significance of the statutory review of the Act.

 

I know that you will soon be hearing from several members of the Prostitution Law Review Committee, and that you have just heard from the chair Paul Fitzharris.  May I take the opportunity to repeat in public what I have already said in person and that is thank you all for your report on the Operation of the Prostitution Reform Act.  It is an invaluable piece of work that provides a coherent and accessible presentation of what is by its very nature a complex and controversial subject.

 

When the law was passed in 2003 – and here I must acknowledge the dedicated advocacy of my colleague Tim Barnett – the Parliament essentially made the statement that we neither support, nor condone prostitution.  The purpose of the Act was to protect the rights, and the health and safety, of sex workers.  But the Act was never going to be able to sustain its goals if it produced the consequences that all the opponents of the legislation predicted.  That was why the review was vital.  It is probably the main reason why we haven’t had a petition calling for its repeal.  It was much easier to claim what would happen than to prove what did.

 

I often tell people that voting on the Bill was one of the most difficult votes I ever made in my then 13 years in Parliament.  That is because I know that although many make a choice to undertake sex work - many do not do so by choice, but rather by circumstance, and this is borne out by the research that shows that money is the most powerful driver in terms of engagement in the sex industry.   But at the end of the day I could not tolerate the hypocrisy of the law at the time or the risks that were posed to sex workers in terms of their personal safety that could be minimised by the decriminalisation measure.

 

At the time, and I suspect even now, there was, (and remains), considerable misunderstanding as to the reality of sex work in New Zealand.  Social commentary and media reports have been influenced by sensationalism, prejudice and guesswork rather than fact.

 

What the Committee’s report does is to enable evidence to be injected into these discussions.  The report provides the facts required to balance the alarmist claims that the Act would lead to an explosion in the numbers of sex workers.  As I said to several people, we did not vote to make anything compulsory.  The Committee’s report finds on the basis of the Christchurch School of Medicine research that the Act has had little impact on the number of people working in the sex industry. 

 

But wasn’t it hard to get the media to understand that a baseline report seeks to measure something before an Act is passed so we can later measure whether there has been a difference.  The media commentary on the baseline report was nothing short of irresponsible and even led to international bodies commenting ill-advisedly on the changes the Act made.  The media coverage this time has not produced headline news, presumably because it doesn’t match the story they told before and is nowhere as near dramatic as they had hoped.  I guess that is just another case of never letting the facts get in the way of a good story.

 

Along with supporters and detractors of the Act alike, I remain concerned about the use of people under 18 in sex work.  I am heartened by the research that of the total number of sex workers surveyed, only 1.3% fell in this category.  Nevertheless I look forward to the day when this element is completely eliminated. 

 

The government’s proposed amendments to raise the upper age in the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act to include 17 year olds in line with UNCROC should go some way to provide more safeguards for young people at risk.  I am pleased however at the number of prosecutions that have occurred under the new law that suggest that there is a much better holding to account those who seek to encourage young people into the industry before they are 18 years old.

 

One of the key successes of decriminalisation is that over 90% of the sex workers surveyed recognise that they have employment rights, health and safety rights, and legal rights.  It is positive that nearly 65% of workers felt more able to refuse a client since the law change, but I would like to see that percentage increase over time as well. 

 

It is apparent from the Committee’s report that some brothel operators still have some way to go in terms of recognising the rights of sex workers.  I would encourage all brothel operators to ensure that they are complying with the law – and when I say complying with the law I am talking about general employment law as well as the prohibition on inducing or compelling a person to provide commercial sexual services.

 

With rights come responsibilities.  As a Christchurch MP, I am aware of certain levels of community response to the more open presence of sex workers in Manchester Street.  While the street based sector was not specifically addressed by the Act in the same way brothels were, the Committee considered this matter in some detail.  Drawing on information from New Zealand’s experience and overseas, the Committee concluded that prohibition of street based sex work does not work and that solutions must have the support of all affected parties.  I endorse the Committee recommendations. 

 

To conclude, I would like to reiterate my thanks to the Prostitution Law Review Committee, and particularly Paul, for your hard work, dedication and commitment in bringing together this high quality report.  The controversy around the decriminalisation of prostitution is not over, but having a comprehensive, evidence-based report should help dispel some of the genuine misunderstandings and deliberate misrepresentations of the nature and extent of the sex work industry in New Zealand.

 

The Committee’s report identifies that some challenges remain to realise in full the purpose of the Prostitution Reform Act, but radical change to the Act is not warranted.  I am sure that this particular recommendation comes as no surprise, but I hope a sense of vindication, to those who worked so hard to develop the law and shepherd it through the House.  It wasn’t easy and as someone who has admitted that this was a hard vote for me personally, I pay tribute to your tenacity and thank you for doing the right thing.