Brothel bylaw reaction mixed

A former Invercargill madam says Queenstown Lakes District Council's decision to lift a ban on brothels in the Wanaka and Queenstown CBDs is the right move because it will reduce private in-calls in suburban family areas.

"Any normal parent would rather have a brothel somewhere central rather than near their house - being a next-door neighbour would suck," Natasha McEwing said.

Ms McEwing is a week away from opening a new strip club, jelly-wrestling and entertainment venue in Invercargill, and said anyone looking to open a brothel would be wise to move to Queenstown, which she said was the most "lucrative" market for commercial sex in the country.

"Queenstown's the place to go if you need a big hit of cash," she said.

Prostitutes working in the resort could get $200 for half an hour's work and the seasonal market was often buoyant because of an influx of wealthy tourists - and locals.

"It is a good market, it's a bigger dollar earner. It's a stackload of money up there," Ms McEwing said.

However, she said she had no plans to set up shop in the resort and although she "wouldn't say never" she was unlikely to return to running brothels.

Contravening the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 by continuing to ban brothels could have landed the QLDC in court, but Catherine Healy, national co-ordinator of the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective, which helped write the Act, said the bylaw was unnecessary and restrictive.

Under QLDC's amended bylaw, brothels have to be 100m apart and not on a ground floor or in a basement.

Although she agreed "sizeable brothels" should be in the CBD, she said the collective's view was that "the normal laws that apply to any other business should apply to sex workers and brothels".

As with other businesses, Ms Healy said the market would dictate demand for brothels in the resort, but even if numbers did grow people, would be unlikely to notice.

"Even standing outside big brothels in Auckland and Wellington the impact is minimal - you hardly see anyone coming or going. [The bylaw] is a bizarre response, it's certainly an over-reaction," she said. On Tuesday, Family First national director Bob McCoskrie called the Prostitution Reform Act "flawed" and "badly written" and said it was never intended to allow prostitution in family areas.

"It is a tragedy that the welfare of families and children is being ignored in favour of potential rates and expansion of prostitution in the centre of family tourist locations," he said.

matt.stewart@odt.co.nz

 

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