New Zealand Conservative

  Just listening to John Key on NewsTalkZB, and the thing that stood out was that John Key wanted to let people know that National could work with the Conservatives. The interviewer was much more interested in talking about the change to potentially being able to work with Winston Peters and New Zealand First, than anything else. Colin Craig has said that the "smacking law" would be one of the things that would influence negotiations were he and his party ever in a position where their support was necessary for a government to form. This article from Stuff calls it a bottom line, and then says the opposite when it quotes what Craig has said about it, leading me to believe that overturning the law will not end up being a condition of support, it will be just used as a means to garner votes.  Probably why John Key is indicating now he can work with the Conservatives. Craig said he was not calling it a bottom-line at this stage because the election had not yet happene...

Legality is often the modern test of morality. If it's legal, it should be fine. Auckland's first high-rise brothel could be a magnet for crime and drugs yet that is no reason to ban it because prostitution is legal . So says the official Auckland Council report from lead senior planner Jennifer Valentine, who backed the application and rejected moral and religious opposition, raising the ire of Monsignor David Tonks, pastoral assistant to the Catholic Bishop Pat Dunn, who opposes the brothel. "I'm seriously disappointed," he said, noting how the area drew families and tourists and wondering what message people would get from the massive brothel with giant lit display sign. "These places are often associated with importing women for the sex trade and it's a tragedy," he said. But Jennifer Valentine told how because activities within the proposed 15-level tower were permitted, she could not consider "moral or religious objections, nor ...

So many glowing stories of the wonders of legalising prostitution in New Zealand have graced the pages of our newspapers, and pretty much nothing on the problem of under-age sex workers, who in times gone past would have been arrested and thus rescued from their traffickers. But because prostitution is legal, it's much easier for sex-traffickers to prostitute the young and evade police attention. New Zealand has now been slammed for not doing enough to combat slavery in this country by the US State Department. Slavery includes sex trafficking and the conditions that foreign workers were under recently on boats fishing in New Zealand waters. Pretty damning. Related link: NZ slammed in US Slavery report

A physics professor from Manhatten has been arrested in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Busted for running a prostitution web site. It was just a hobby he claims. Well everybody needs a hobby you just have to choose one that doesn't run you afoul of the law. The police spent six months tracking this fellow down. You might think they have better things to do with their time than spend it hunting down professorial sleazeballs. But then again you might think that physics professors have better thing to engage their minds with than helping johns set themselves up with hookers. Strange old world .

Call it fate or a fortuitous co-incidence but whatever its a controversy that has now found a tidy resolution. Auckland's historic Palace building demolished

[Update] you can watch the video yourself now HERE I have just seen Pam Corkery interviewed on Good Morning talking about her new brothel business; it's a service consisting of male hookers especially for women clients. I watched the whole interview pretty much shaking my head at what this distasteful woman was saying. As the video of her appearance is not up online yet, I will try to summarise in my own words until I can update. The interviewer Hadyn asked her how she had come up with the idea. Pam said that she had just gotten over her alcoholism and was driving around one day and feeling like she'd "like some" (sex), but that she just wanted the sex and then to be able to pay the man to go away after because she'd been married three times already and wasn't after anything more meaningful. By chance her friend had also just broken up and she also was feeling needy and so they decided to go into business together and start up a brothel especially for wome...

I can see the headlines now: " Brothel successfully sues neighbour for loss of business " Yes, with brothels now "legally respectable", they have moved out of the red light districts and set up shop in the suburbs. This leads to problems. Many clients can knock on the wrong door in the middle of the night waking the neighbours. Should an 80 year old granny answer the door, teeth out for the night, winter-warm cloth nightgown and fluffy pink slippers, the clients might make false assumptions, and flee screaming into the night. This could generate a downturn in revenue for the brothel and they would have to take legal action to ensure their neighbours are "the right sort". After all, the economy is at stake. On the other hand, perhaps they should set up shop next door to the Directors of one of those failed finance companies that have ripped off millions. There's a common theme there somewhere. And whilst we muse on that, evening all. How...

The condemnation of prostitution was not just puritan bigotry; it was a recognition of a profound truth, which is that you and your body are not two things but one, and by abusing the body you harden the soul. Right after reading in No Minister that NZ is fast becoming an economic desert, where only the sex trade is any good . Then I read on Lindsay Mitchell's blog that the good people of Dannevirke are trying to run a brothel out of town. Dannevirke resident Mike Long said it only took the people of Carterton 18 months to drive a brothel out of business in their town. "It comes down to one thing - money. I think we should name and shame the people that are using the business, then let their partners know." Gill Allardice, a Dannevirke resident for 30 years, said she would be happy to wait outside the front door and take a personal note of all patrons. "I will sit outside and do my knitting if I have to." She had already organised a petition and written letters...

Some-one made a passing comment on a thread (another blog) that I think reflects the opinion of many: On the prostitution front, I think 'each to their own' and it is a fairly harmless activity. It's not actually a fairly harmless activity. People may be entering the profession "by choice", but for most, it's the kind of choice built on broken foundations and made in the absence of real freedom. And if so many people were keen on it, trafficking in sex slaves wouldn't be on the rise. I don't expect you to take my word for it, but there is an excellent book on the subject: Prostitution, Trafficking and Traumatic Stress , by Melissa Farley. A review said: Prostitution, Trafficking, and Traumatic Stress offers the reader an analysis of prostitution and trafficking as organized interpersonal violence. Even in academia, law, and public health, prostitution is often misunderstood as "sex work." The book’s 32 contributors offer clinical examples...