Sex workers in the city not likely as Hamilton grapples with rules

Monday, 4 March 2019

Prostitution was decriminalised in 2003 and councils were given two areas in which it could apply regulations - location and signage. (file photo).

A ban on solicitation of sex on Hamilton streets could be tossed out if Hamilton city councillors agree with a sex workers' union lawyer who says it's illegal.

Hamilton City Council's Prostitution Bylaw 2009 says sex workers cannot solicit, or be visible soliciting, at any public space in the city including streets, roads, footpaths or road reserves.

A ban on solicitation in public places in Hamilton has been called illegal (file photo).

That's unduly restrictive and illegal, NZ Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC) lawyer Bridie Sweetman.

'I basically can't just stand there in a short skirt either because that is suggestive of offering commercial sexual service not pursuant to any invitation,' Sweetman said. 'That's one of the reasons why it's illegal and has been found by parliament and your legal advisors and by myself as a lawyer to be illegal.'

NZPC lawyer Bridie Sweetman says Hamilton's ban is unduly restrictive.

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Councillors were told the bulk of its bylaw is legal and enforceable except for the solicitation aspect.

It even withstood a legal challenge in court, however, the solicitation aspect was not challenged at that time, said council's corporate policy specialist Riki Manarangi.

'Because it's an absolute ban, it's inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act,' Manarangi said.

Prostitution was decriminalised in 2003 and councils were given two areas in which it could apply regulations - location and signage.

Under Hamilton's district plan, brothels are retail activities. Managed brothels must be certified and located in permitted areas and not within 100m of schools, marae and places of worship.

Small owner-operated brothels of four workers or less don't require a brothel operator's certificate. Home-based brothels, under Hamilton rules, allow two people to operate where one person is a resident.

City growth general manager Jen Baird said the legal advice is clear.

'We have a ban on solicitation in our current bylaw. That provision in our bylaw is considered to not be legal,' Baird said.

NZPC is concerned council rules endorse the vulnerability of sex workers who, if in breach of the bylaws, are unwilling to report violent offending to police.

'Heavy regulation like this discourages sex workers having regular sexual health checks, exposing their unsafe sex practices to health practitioners including medical officers of health,' Sweetman said.

'There is a syphilis pandemic in heavy regulated areas in the North Island that is absent in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.'

Susan Forbes, from NZPC's Tauranga office, said: 'The Tauranga sexual health nurse is seeing three new cases of syphilis every day and she works three days per week.'

Mayor Andrew King said cities around the country have street sex work scenes but none in Hamilton. He asked if it was the result of regulation.

Sweetman said no. The number of street workers in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch has decreased since the reforms.

'I've seen it in all the bigger cities and the smaller cities and you're saying it's got nothing to do with the bylaw?' King asked.

Sweetman replied: 'We think that has more to do with the internet and cell phones and the ability to work indoors. The reason those cities still have it and you don't is because those cities always have and you haven't.'

Hamilton's Prostitution Bylaw 2009 will go before a council meeting on March 14. A public consultation round is proposed for March 18 to April 18 with hearings in May.