Alex Massie is taking a break from pillorying Gordon Brown to take a look at prostitution instead. Normally I’m rather suspicious of men who call for prostitution to be legalized, but Alex has show distinct Libertarian leanings in the past and the article he links to from the New Zealand Herald is quite interesting. Apparently New Zealand legalized prostitution in 2003. The newspaper article is in response to a government report commissioned to investigate the effects of the new law. And the results seem positive. None of the dire predictions usually made by religious extremists appear to have come to pass, and while there are not a lot of positives to report, the fact that over 60% of those prostitutes surveyed “felt they were more able to refuse to provide commercial sexual services to a particular client since the enactment of the law” is excellent news.
Given the weight of evidence that abounds, I am astonished that there are still people who think that making an activity that is popular illegal will stop it happening rather that simply move it into the control of criminals.
Though I have only been in NZ for a few months, I do find the legal structure and enforcement structures ere exceedingly… sane.
THis doesn’t mean “good” necessarily, just better than I have seen elsewhere!
A few weeks back the Sunday paper’s headline asked, in effect, if ON DUTY police have too easy access to guns. See, here cops are only allowed guns on a per incident basis with supervisorial approval and many people think that the approval is too easy to get.
Ahhhh… civiilsation, at last!
I would disagree that there aren’t a lot of positives to report. The research showed that there has been improvement in working conditions (if not universal) and that a significant majority of sex workers felt that there had been an improvement in what could be done about violence since the passing of the Act. In addition to what was mentioned in the report, sex workers are now covered by the national workers’ compensation scheme and their workplaces must meet health and safety requirements. Most obvious of all, of course, they are no longer liable to be arrested. This has been a very significant piece of social legislation, and one which as a NZ citizen I’m very proud of.