GEORGINA BEYER (Labour): I seek the leave of the House to take a brief call on the bill.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley): The member has sought leave of the House to have a call. Is there any objection? There is not. Is this a 5-minute call?

GEORGINA BEYER: Yes, but it will not be as long as that. Thank you, Madam Assistant Speaker, and I thank my colleagues for their generosity. I want to make a few brief comments.

I have grave concerns about the content of the bill. I respect the intent and the sincerity, genuine I believe, of Sir Barry Curtis and the people of Manukau City, whom he represents as mayor, in seeking to have this matter dealt with. However, I believe that some of what is in the bill is completely erroneous. The hysteria that has gone on this evening in some of the speeches regarding the Prostitution Reform Act is just that—hysteria. Some of those issues would not have come to light if we had not gone down that track. I believe we are able to chuck out or address many, if not all, of the issues in this bill, because of what is happening already—for example, the review that is already occurring of the Prostitution Reform Act as a result of it, and other such matters.

I should declare that I am a member of the Local Government and Environment Committee. I almost welcome the opportunity to rubbish a lot of what is in the bill. However, I do maintain that I uphold the right of Manukau City and of Sir Barry in generously bringing the bill forward and using a parliamentary process—almost mischievously in a sense, but, nevertheless, it is a right and correct use of the process. So I look forward to the bill coming before the select committee. I will give the bill extraordinarily close scrutiny and very deep questioning, for I, as most members of this Parliament know, have a very close association with the sex industry.

I do believe that street soliciting is the more dangerous of the prostitution activities that occur, and I would like nothing more than to see people not necessarily need to be in the situation of street work. That is why I wonder where that council has been. This has not been a problem of recent occurrence but one of some history. So where are the initiatives to get those people into more desirable work and the opportunities for it, perhaps, so as to get them out of the horrible rut they can sometimes be in?

I ask members not to remain ignorant to the goodness of what the Prostitution Reform Act provided for this country. Yes, the matters are distasteful, but we should face them, as we are, responsibly. I do believe that is what the Act provided.

This bill is a local bill. My colleague George Hawkins has quite rightly, as a local member, brought it forward on behalf of the Manukau City Council. That is why I am happy to support the referral of the bill to the select committee. I certainly cannot promise that I will support it beyond there.