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... 'very young, female, casually employed and thoroughly stigmatized by their work' (ibid. , 12). Five years after the Act was introduced, the New South Wales Attorney General and the Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning established the Brothels Task Force. Its brief was to monitor the regulation of brothels by local councils and to assess the success of occupational health and safety programmes for sex workers, their clients and the public (Brothels Task Force, 2001). The Task Force was asked to review the success of the legislative changes made five years previously and assess the need for additional reforms. Membership of the Task Force appears to have been restricted to representatives from predominantly police, health and government agencies. The Brothels Task Force Report does not detail the methodology used in undertaking their evaluation.
What it presents in its report is an introductory overview of the changes introduced, followed by three major sections addressing planning issues regarding the regulation of brothels, issues arising in enforcing the regulation of brothels, and occupational health and safety issues. In relation to the latter, it noted that the 1995 reforms had been positive in their impact on sex workers' access to health services, again without detailing the basis for this assertion. The Report indicates areas regarded as problematic by local councils in New South Wales, which reflect initial concerns raised here in the wake of decriminalization. For instance, the Report notes that if councils try to enforce planning restrictions that are too restrictive, they will render it difficult for brothel operators to operate legally and run counter to the objectives of the reforms introduced.
Restricting the operation of brothels to industrial areas may pose safety threats, while the Task Force also found that prohibiting home-based brothels in residential areas tended not to see the operator move but instead operate illegally, thereby reducing the likelihood of their accessing occupational health and safety programmes and rendering them more vulnerable to abuse and violence. A major recommendation of the Task Force was the establishment of a Brothels Planning Advisory Panel to assist local councils with the task of enforcing planning regulations for brothels. Comprising primarily government, council, business, sex worker and health representatives, the Advisory Panel would prepare and promote guiding principles and model codes, policies and conditions. A recent New South Wales Parliamentary Briefing Paper, however, began by stating: The commercial sex industry in NSW continues to attract media attention as communities throughout the State grapple with the vexed issue of where to locate legal brothels. (Smith, 2003, 1). A major issue of concern still facing councils appears to be how to close down illegal brothels, i. e.
brothels operating in a zone where they are prohibited, or in a zone where they are permitted but where consent has not been obtained. In order to have such illegal premises closed, councils have to seek restraining orders from the Land and Environment Court. In order to prove that premises were being used as an illegal brothel, some councils had hired private investigators to have sex with a prostitute, but legislative amendments have now been introduced to enable circumstantial evidence to be sufficient (Smith, 2003). The 2003 update also noted that street prostitution continued to be a problem in some areas of Sydney. In one suburb the local Council had closed streets near a school in an attempt to stop kerb-crawling. The police themselves said law enforcement was not an effective way of controlling street prostitution.
Although signs were installed warning citizens that undercover police were targeting kerb-crawlers, ten offenders were caught in the first week following their installation. As one officer noted, we have signs telling them police are in the area and they still come here and get a criminal record. It's the only undercover operation I know of that is literally signposted. (The Sunday Telegraph, 16 March 2003, quoted in Smith, 2003, 13). Retaining restrictions on areas where sex workers could solicit was also identified as problematic, given that those convicted are typically given a fine and go back to street work to earn the money to pay for it (ibid. ). Overall the 2003 report concurred with the Brothels Task Force that the planning system introduced was an effective regulatory mechanism but councils needed advice regarding how to do this effectively. The areas of street prostitution and sex slavery involving illegal immigrants warranted further attention and a range of co-operative measures was considered necessary given the limitations, and sometimes compounding nature, of law enforcement procedures.
Implications for New Zealand Measures to assess and evaluate prostitution law reform appear to be in their infancy and there is little currently available to provide specific direction in this area. However, in three to five years time there may be examples that can be drawn upon from the Australian context. In particular it may be useful to appraise developments regarding ways of resolving the tensions between state legislative aims and local council initiatives, given early indications of similar tensions emerging within the New Zealand context. Evaluating prostitution law reform is likely always to be a difficult venture, given the complexities of the social and legal realities surrounding the industry. Evaluation of New Zealand's legislation will necessarily involve careful examination of the aims of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 and the formulation of a range of intersecting strategies to assess the extent to which these may or may not have been achieved. Given the overlapping nature of many of the factors involved, however, it will be virtually impossible to isolate any one factor for analysis.
Instead, it is likely that a range of methods will be proposed to gather a variety of data sets which will need to be considered collectively. These may include a combination of surveys, interviews, statistical analysis, government reports, and media analysis. (See note in Appendix I). It will be the task of the Prostitution Review Committee to establish the measures to be used, and to prepare a report on its findings for Government. Barry, Kathleen (1979). Female Sexual Slavery.
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall. Beauvoir, S. de (1974). The Second Sex.
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and R. Masters (1964). Prostitution and Morality: A Definitive Report on the Prostitute in Contemporary Society and an Analysis of the Causes and Effects of the Suppression of Prostitution. London, Souvenir Press. Beyer, G. (1999). Change for the Better.
Auckland, Random House. Bishop, C. (1931). Women and Crime. London, Chat and Windus. Boyle, F. M. , M.
P. Dunne, et al. (1997). 'Psychological distress among female sex workers. ' Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 21 (6): 643 - 646. Brock, D. R. (1998).
Making Trouble, Making Work: Prostitution as a Social Problem. Toronto, University of Toronto Press. Brockett, L. and A. Murray (1994). Thai sex workers in Sydney.
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Lovejoy (editors). Sydney, University of New South Wales Press. Brookes, B. (1993). 'A weakness for strong subjects: the women's movement and sexuality. ' New Zealand Journal of History 27 (2): 140 - 156. Brothels Task Force (2001).
Report of the Brothels Task Force. Sydney, New South Wales Government. Brown, A. and D. Barrett (2002). Knowledge of Evil: Child Prostitution and Child Sexual Abuse in Twentieth-Century England.
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Research essay sample on Health And Safety Task Force
