Candidate calls for more local choice on street prostitution

ACT’s Christchurch East candidate, Gareth Veale, wants more local choice to control street prostitution.

His call follows reports a Manchester Street homeowner may face assault charges after confronting a sex worker who was with a client on the owner’s property.

“This is crazy,” says Mr Veale. “Our home is our castle, not someone else’s brothel. We should be protected, not threatened by the law when strangers use our property to sell sex.

“The politicians created this mess,” he says. “They need to fix it. And fix it fast.” Mr Veale believes local communities should be able to control street prostitution “the same way we control other business activities in public.”

He says there should be “local rules for local reasons” and points out how this is already happening with alcohol. “The new liquor laws give Councils the right to produce their own Local Liquor Policy," he says. “That proves it can be done.

“If they think we’re grown-up enough to have a Local Liquor Policy, then we should be able to have a Local Prostitution Policy too,” Mr Veale says. “Communities should have the right to choose on an issue like this.”

Mr Veale says more community choice fits the ACT philosophy. “We’re a party of choice,” he says. “We want people to have more choice and take more responsibility. If communities want local rules, they should have them. Then we can decide what happens in our city and on our property.”

ENDS

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