Claims That NZ is Good for Sex Workers ‘Laughable’
Claims That NZ is Good for Sex Workers ‘Laughable’
Family First NZ says that claims by the Prostitutes Collective
that New Zealand is the best place on earth to be a
prostitute are laughable and from
‘fantasyland’.
“Even the architect of the
bill to decriminalise prostitution has admitted that the politicians were
naïve regarding the harms to workers, and the Prime
Minister John Key believes the legalisation of
prostitution has failed to safeguard sex workers and bring a
halt to underage prostitution,” says Bob McCoskrie,
National Director of Family First NZ.
“The New
Zealand Prostitutes Collective are merely trying to justify
their existence – but they do no favours to vulnerable
women and men who are being sexually abused and exploited.
The Collective seems to be the only group in NZ who thinks
the law is working. And pimps and brothel
owners.”
“Just last year, the police said sex workers in Christchurch are
experiencing violence or abuse on at least a monthly basis,
and that they were concerned by the “fairly common”
victimisation of Christchurch’s prostitutes, much of which
went unreported. That doesn’t sound like a safe working
environment.”
“The association of prostitution
with gang and criminal behaviour, alcohol and drug abuse,
underage prostitution, and sexual abuse and violence means
that more and more young people and prostitutes are being
sentenced to an unacceptable situation,” says Mr
McCoskrie.
Councils in Wellington, Christchurch,
Auckland, and other regional areas have been given a
hospital-pass as they try and negotiate a flawed
law.
A delegation of former prostitutes accompanied
by their advocates appeared before the Select Committee in
Parliament last year and said that prostitution had wrecked
their lives, many suffer from post-traumatic stress
disorder, that their troubled upbringings attracted them to
prostitution, and that the only solution is to prosecute
buyers in order to help prostitutes out of the industry.
“Our government has made legal that which we as a
society fail to see as legitimate. Once defined as work, the
Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) not only encouraged more men
to buy sex, but transformed prostitution into an acceptable,
even attractive job for young, poor woman in New
Zealand,” said Elizabeth Subritzky from the
organisation Freedom from Sexual Exploitation
(FFSE).
“The ongoing problems of the
decriminalisation of prostitution have been reported by
retailers and families in Manurewa, Papatoetoe, Christchurch
and many other residential areas, schools and family
shopping areas being affected by the activities of
prostitution, including half-naked prostitutes, used
condoms, propositioning of family members, intimidation,
noise and nuisance, and a general reduced sense of safety -
and the local councils have been powerless to act,” says
Mr McCoskrie.
“How can we be serious about
reducing sexual violence against women when the state
legitimises the sexual abuse and exploitation of vulnerable
people. There is a healthy stigma against prostitution –
and for good
reason.”
ENDS