World-class law?

Parliament voted last week by 60 votes to 59 to pass the Prostitution Reform Bill (PRB). While the new law is intended to improve conditions for women in prostitution, international experience shows it will fail in its aims. In Victoria (Australia), the number of brothels has almost quadrupled since legalisation in 1994. The expanded 'industry' has been accompanied by more crime, more violence and problems for the police and local councils. There is nothing to suggest that New Zealand will not head in the same direction. As Police Association President Greg O' Connor said yesterday, "this bill is police out, criminals in".

We were very disappointed with the decision, and while we hold grave fears for the safety of New Zealand's most vulnerable women and children, we are not despondent. This is a loss but not a defeat. Winning this debate was not the end goal. It was only a step in a much wider cultural battle for a Civil Society. We are even more determined now to see legislation that genuinely reforms prostitution.

Obviously the current parliament will not welcome such a move, but at the next election New Zealanders have the chance to change many of those MPs. For now the challenge is to continue building public awareness of the truth about prostitution. And not too many years from now, we believe, laws will be passed that declare our women and children are not for sale.

We sincerely thank all who rose to the task, took the time to get informed and got active. Many entered this debate only recently and just look at what the collective effort achieved. Against us were the Family Planning Association and the Prostitutes' Collective; both government-funded lobby groups (receiving $6.2 million and $500,000 a year, respectively). The Prostitutes' Collective has been on the campaign for nearly 9 years. The first reading of the bill had just 21 MPs voting against it - last week  that had risen to 59.

 

Voting on the PRB

 

A 60 - 60 vote would have defeated the bill. This was a conscience vote meaning MPs were not bound by party loyalties. How they voted:

                           For - Against - Abstain

Labour                41 -    10 -         1

National               l6 -     21

NZ First                0 -     13

United Future        0 -       8

Progressive           0 -       2

ACT                     4 -       5

Green                    9 -       0

Total                    60 -    59 -       1

Some notable voting patterns were observed amongst Tim Barnett's Labour colleagues, namely: * all of the Labour cabinet and executive voted for the bill; * amongst Labour's list MPs, all voted for the bill except for Ashraf Choudhary who abstained; and * all 10 of the Labour MPs that voted against the bill are electorate MPs.