MEDIA RELEASE
5 February 2009

Government Should Fix Prostitution Law NOW

Family First NZ says that the government should fix the prostitution law now, and cannot ignore the pleas from communities throughout NZ who are saying that the decriminalisation of prostitution has been a spectacular failure.

“The decriminalisation of prostitution was based on flawed ideology and should be immediately repealed,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. “The National-led government cannot ignore this issue and hope that it goes away. Families deserve laws which protect them and safeguard their communities.”

“Since decriminalisation, there has been an increase in street prostitution, brothels operating in residential areas, an increase in teenage prostitution (involving girls reportedly as young as 11 in some areas), and worse still, a recent report of a parent making financial gain from ‘selling’ their daughter. There is also an association of brothels and prostitutes with drugs, alcohol, gangs, and used condoms littering the area.”

“The best way to protect all prostitutes is to prosecute the buyer - as evidenced by the trend in Europe including Sweden, Bulgaria, and Norway -  which has resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of prostitutes,” says Mr McCoskrie.

“The opposition to a residential based brothel in the Wellington area, opposition to a brothel in the main street of Dannevirke, opposition to brothels being zoned for the main shopping areas in Lower Hutt, opposition to a sex parlour operating in the same building as a preschool in Wellington, Hamilton City Council’s successful restriction on residential brothels, and now attempts by the Manukau City Council to tackle the problems of street prostitution, shows that communities are not accepting the liberalised laws.”

“NZ’ers voted out the previous government because of the incessant level of social engineering. National needs to fix this particular failed piece of social engineering – now.” says Mr McCoskrie.

ENDS

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