Introduction

This chapter examines the local government response to the 2003 Prostitution Reform Act (PRA). First, it identifies the local regulatory options – bylaws, district plan rules, decisions on resource consents – that continue to be available following the decriminalisation of prostitution by the PRA. Second, it discusses the degree to which local authorities have adopted these regulatory initiatives, along with the legal challenges to them. To date, there have been three notable challenges (two successful and one unsuccessful) to bylaws enacted by local authorities. The chapter concludes by assessing the state of affairs around local regulation and briefly touching on the tension arising from the local ambivalence towards the national countenance of prostitution.

The continuing role for local regulation of brothels and the business of prostitution

The PRA fundamentally shifts the nature and locus of the regulation of the business of prostitution. The central feature of the PRA was the repeal of the various offences prohibiting solicitation and prostitution. But room remains for the regulation of sex work. Consistent with the purpose of the PRA (section 3), the welfare and occupational health and safety of sex workers are managed nationally through a centrally driven regulatory framework of licensing and inspection of brothels.

Regulation of the perceived neighbourhood or environmental effects of prostitution was left to local communities through their territorial authorities (city and district councils). Territorial authorities are one of the forms of local or municipal government in New Zealand. The responsibility for sub-national governance and regulation generally is shared between 73 territorial authorities (city and district councils) and 12 regional councils (see Mitchell and Knight, 2008, paras 7-11). The allocation of the duty to manage the effects of prostitution to territorial authorities is consistent with the standing brief of territorial authorities. In particular, territorial authorities have a general mandate to promote the well-being of their communities under the 2002 Local Government Act, including legislative power to pass bylaws to achieve this purpose. They also possess an important role to sustainably manage the use, development or protection of land and natural and physical resources within their district under the 1991 Resource Management Act.