Katherine Rich
National Party MP

19 March 2006

Prostitute registers should be shredded

National MP Katherine Rich has called for Archives New Zealand to shred the prostitute registers it will receive from the Police.

"The registers must be shredded to protect the privacy of those on the list,'' says Mrs Rich.

"Some waffly argument about protecting our nation's history doesn't wash in light of the violation of privacy this action represents.

"Would the Minister in charge of Archives, Judith Tizard, agree with archiving a list of women who have had abortions? What about archiving her own private medical records from a public hospital?

"These women have the same rights to privacy as anyone else. It was information most didn't want to hand over in the first place.

"The rights of the women themselves outweigh any benefit there might be in having such information available.

"There's no real benefit to the nation in archiving this sort of information - only unnecessary pain and upset for those involved," says Mrs Rich.

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