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five - The Prostitution Reform Act
- Edited by Gillian Abel, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lisa Fitzgerald, University of Queensland School of Public Health, Catherine Healy, Aline Taylor
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- Book:
- Taking the Crime out of Sex Work
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 01 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 19 May 2010, pp 75-84
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
As discussed in the previous chapter, the successful lobbying for change in how the sex industry was regulated in New Zealand culminated in a parliamentary vote on 25 June 2003 where the Prostitution Reform Act (PRA) was voted into law by 60 votes to 59 with one abstention. This chapter gives an overview of how sex work was regulated in New Zealand prior to 2003 before discussing the purpose of the PRA and how the specific aims were addressed in a section-by-section discussion of the Act.
Regulation of sex work in New Zealand prior to 2003
Prior to 2003, sex work in New Zealand was not illegal but all related activities were criminalised through the invocation of clauses of a number of existing Acts. Section 26 of the 1981 Summary Offences Act made it an offence for a sex worker to offer sex for money in a public place:
Soliciting is applicable to any person who offers his or her body or any other person's body for the purpose of prostitution.
However, clients were not criminalised, as it was not an offence to pay or to offer to pay for sex. A double standard existed, therefore, as a sex worker could be convicted of soliciting and incur a criminal record, while, in the eyes of the law, the client had committed no offence.
Section 147 of the 1961 Crimes Act made it an offence to keep or manage a brothel.
(1) Everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years who–
(a) Keeps or manages, or acts or assists in the management of any brothel; or
(b) Being the tenant, lessee, or occupier of any premises, or any part thereof to be used as a brothel; or
(c) Being the lessor or landlord of any premises, or the agent of the lessor or landlord, lets the premises or any part thereof with the knowledge that premises are to be used as a brothel, or that some part thereof is to be so used, or is wilfully a party to the continued use of the premises or any part thereof as a brothel.
(2) In this section, the term ‘brothel’ means any house, room, set of rooms, or place of any kind whatever used for the purposes of prostitution, whether by one woman or more.
three - History of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective
- Edited by Gillian Abel, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lisa Fitzgerald, University of Queensland School of Public Health, Catherine Healy, Aline Taylor
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- Book:
- Taking the Crime out of Sex Work
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 01 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 19 May 2010, pp 45-56
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- Chapter
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter describes the history of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective (NZPC), tracking the collective's efforts, since its formation, to confront social stigma and overturn legislation that had a negative impact on the lives of sex workers in New Zealand. The chapter begins with a brief outline of the socio-political context in which the NZPC emerged in the late 1980s, before describing the ways in which the collective built support for decriminalising sex work in New Zealand.
Background
Most activities related to sex work at the time of NZPC's inception were illegal and most female sex workers worked disguised as ‘masseuses’ in massage parlours. In 1978, the Massage Parlours Act (MPA) was introduced to regulate the operation of licensed massage parlours. Under the MPA, massage parlour operators were required to hold licenses and were prohibited from employing individuals with drug- or prostitution-related convictions. The MPA also required that all employees’ details be recorded and available for inspection by police at any time. The police visited massage parlours regularly to uplift the names of ‘masseuses’ working there and check that they had no drug or prostitution convictions that would prevent them from working in a parlour.
Smaller numbers of sex workers worked for themselves, either on the street, from home, on the ports through known bars, or as escorts in escort agencies. Undercover police regularly masqueraded as clients in massage parlours and on the street, typically encouraging sex workers to offer sex for money, as a strategy to arrest them for soliciting. The police would also record the names and other personal information of sex workers, which would be held on a police database of ‘Known Prostitutes’. While police claimed they did this to teach a lesson to massage parlour licence holders who were ‘too soft’ and did not keep ‘their girls’ in line, this had a big impact on not only the lives of those sex workers who were arrested, but also on the lives of those who were working with them.
The police would also round up sex workers on the streets and process them through the courts where they would be convicted of ‘soliciting for the purposes of prostitution in a public place’ under section 26 of the 1981 Summary Offences Act. Such a conviction would lead to a $200 fine, which the police considered insignificant.
four - Lobbying for decriminalisation
- Edited by Gillian Abel, University of Otago, New Zealand, Lisa Fitzgerald, University of Queensland School of Public Health, Catherine Healy, Aline Taylor
-
- Book:
- Taking the Crime out of Sex Work
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 01 September 2022
- Print publication:
- 19 May 2010, pp 57-74
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
The successful campaign for the reform of New Zealand's sex work laws took nearly two decades. Inevitably for a law reform campaign in a vigorous parliamentary democracy, the process of law reform went through a series of largely predictable stages. Early on, the people who stood to gain most from law reform became aware of the injustices of the old laws and began networking to build the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective (NZPC), a nationwide sex worker organisation. Through the NZPC, sex workers began building awareness and support for their cause, creating a space to look to the long term.
Flowing from that, a decision-making and conceptualisation process was carried out to decide which model of law reform was best suited to New Zealand, based on the impact it would have on sex workers. Following this conceptualisation phase was the pragmatic process of drafting law, which involved moulding the decriminalisation model into something meaningful and politically feasible for the New Zealand parliamentary process. The Prostitution Reform Bill (PRB) was written and submitted to parliament at the end of this drafting period.
There was a great deal of overlap between the networking, conceptualisation and drafting stages and, throughout all of these stages, campaign building was also taking place. Campaign building was critical to raising awareness and understanding, not only within the sex industry, but also outside it, with government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), political parties, politicians, the media and others.
The parliamentary process eventually brought all of these various stages together in what became the most public and memorable element of the process of law reform. As the PRB began its long journey through parliament, the thinking behind it needed to be communicated and explained publicly. This chapter follows the networking, conceptualisation, drafting and campaign-building stages of the law reform, before describing the process of further explanation of the law to the public and outlining the parliamentary process through which the law passed. The chapter ends with reflections on the campaign and its outcome from the perspective of Tim Barnett, the Member of Parliament (MP) who sponsored and introduced the Bill in parliament, as well as the perspective of members of NZPC.