Currently prostitution and brothel keeping are legal in New Zealand, provided the prostitute is 18 or over. Prostitution is the sale of sexual services for money or other kind of return. ... A brothel, also known as a bordello or whorehouse, is an establishment specifically dedicated to prostitution. ...

History and current situation

Traditionally, advertising the sale of sex ('soliciting') has been illegal, although the actual sale of sex itself was not proscribed. It was also illegal to run a brothel, and to live from the earnings of prostitution.

Prostitution still went on, although because of the laws on soliciting, it usually maintained a thin pretense of being something else. Prostitutes advertised their services as escorts. Brothels advertised themselves as massage parlours. Prostitutes are available from the same places as in most countries.

Street workers, typically on Auckland's K-road, Wellington's Vivian Street, and Christchurch's Manchester Street, are available for services and can either be picked up in a car, or the sexual act can be completed in a secluded place on the street. This is obviously the least secure location. The Auckland Metropolitan Area, or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. ... Located close to the central business district of the city of Auckland, New Zealand - Karangahape Road (also known as K Road) is one of Aucklands most colourful places. ... Wellington (Te Whanganui-a-Tara or Poneke in Māori) is the capital of New Zealand, the countrys second largest urban area and the most populous national capital in Oceania. ... Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the third largest city in the country. ...

Prostitutes and escort agencies advertise in the newspapers, on television and on billboards. Motorcades of foreign dignitaries have been known to have been given elaborate routes to traverse Auckland without passing such advertising.

Brothels exist, sometimes attached to a strip club, as in Dunedin's Cleopatra bar, but often they are stand alone facilities. These are not advertised from the outside, and often serve as the homes of the prostitutes working there. Dunedin (ÅŒtepoti in Maori) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, located in coastal Otago. ...

There is some high-class prostitution in New Zealand, involving women working from mobile phones.

The New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective is an organisation that supports the rights of prostitutes in New Zealand. The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC) is a New Zealand-based organisation that supports the rights of sex workers and educates prostitutes about minimizing the risks of the job. ...

In July 2006 a police officer in Auckland was reprimanded for moonlighting as a prostitute without permission, but was allowed to keep her job as she had committed no crime.#1 The Auckland Metropolitan Area, or Greater Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest urban area in New Zealand. ... The term Moonlighting has two possible meanings: Moonlighting (employment) is doing a second job outside of normal working hours. ...

In September 2006 a report ^[1]by the Otago University's Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences for the Review Committee indicated that the number of prostitutes plying their trade on the streets,since the changes of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, has remained the same or reduced in some cases.

Prostitution Reform Act 2003

On 25 June 2003, a bill was passed in Parliament that legalised prostitution, pimping and brothel-keeping. Brothel keepers must apply for an operator's license although this is formality unless the person has a serious criminal conviction. June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pimping v. ...

This bill passed narrowly; of 120 MPs, 60 voted for it, 59 against, and one politician, Labour's Ashraf Choudhary, abstained. (Ashraf Choudhary is the country's only Muslim MP.) The result was a surprise as most commentators had expected the bill to narrowly fail. An impassioned speech to parliament by Georgina Beyer, the world's first transsexual member of parliament, was believed by many observers to have persuaded several wavering MP's, possibly including Mr Choudhary, to change their votes at the last minute. The vote was a conscience vote, meaning that MPs voted according to their personal beliefs rather than following a party policy. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... The New Zealand Labour Party is a New Zealand political party. ... Dr Ashraf Choudhary (born 15 February 1949) is a member of Parliament in New Zealand. ... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish: Müslüman, Persian and Urdu: مسلمان, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of Islam. ... Georgina Beyer addresses the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights Georgina Beyer (b 1957) is the worlds first transsexual Member of Parliament, currently (2005) a list MP for the Labour Party in New Zealand. ... A transsexual (sometimes transexual) person establishes a permanent identity with the opposite gender to their assigned (usually at birth) sex. ... A conscience vote or free vote is a type of vote in a legislative body where legislators are each expected to vote according to their own personal conscience rather than according to an official line set down by their political party. ...

After the passage of the Prostitution Reform Act, the Maxim Institute and other conservative Christian organisations tried to gain an appropriate number of signatures for a citizens initiated referendum under New Zealand's Citizens Initiated Referendum Act 1993. Although it was allowed an extension, anti-bill groups fell well short of gaining the number of authenticated signatures required. In the current 48th New Zealand Parliament, the Prostitution Law Reform (Manukau City Council) Amendment Bill led to hearings before a select committee, but failed to pass its second parliamentary reading. In addition, it must be said that court challenges have usually failed to uphold restrictive council bylaws that try to obstruct the purposes of the legislation- decriminalisation, health and occupational safety for sex workers.

Child prostitution in New Zealand

ECPAT New Zealand [2] and Stop Demand Foundation have cited in a report “The Nature and Extent of the Sex Industry in New Zealand,” a police survey of the New Zealand sex industry that 210 children under the age of 18 years were identified as selling sex, with three-quarters being concentrated in one Police District. [3]. It should be noted that the Prostitutes Collective of New Zealand are also opposed to child prostitution, and campaign for stronger independent youth allowances as well as other measures intended to assist younger people at risk from undertaking child prostitution as an economic neccessity. ECPAT is a network of organizations and individuals working together to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children. ...

Footnotes

1. ^ [1]Hookers not flooding streets since reform - Otago University's Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences