Posts by Craig Young
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Hard News: Local interest, in reply to Hamish N00nan,
Hamish, thanks for reinforcing what the NZ Prostitutes Collective have been saying all along- the real problem in Manukau City seems to be the unwillingness of local body politicians to crack down on out of control liquor outlets and the antisocial activity that results from them,
Actually, the real problem here is gender identity. Under the current Human Rights Act and despite the Crown Law Office opinion secured by Labour Attorney-General Michael Cullen, transsexuals are not included and are therefore subject to employment, accomodation and service provision discrimination. And many of the Hunters Corner street sex workers are whakawahine and fa'afafine.
I refuse to either tolerate or condone a situation in which vulnerable Maori and Pacific Island trans/cis street sex workers are wantonly endangered in the context of their health, safety and lives merely because fundamentalist agitators, New Zealand First and certain Auckland local body politicians want to orchestrate a moral panic against them.
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Hard News: Local interest, in reply to Russell Brown,
Nope, sorry, once again, Russell. New Zealand is seriously behind the United Kingdom, all Australian federal, state and territory jurisdictions and Canada when it comes to including gender identity within our anti-discrimination laws. And according to Gillian Abel, many of the transwomen involved in street sex work may well be homeless and unable to access social welfare benefits, or want to risk losing their rental council properties if they work out of their rental accomodation.
This is a moral panic. Some of the cis/transgender street sex workers are just as much Manukau residents as the other residents. And PROS went too far in terms of its borderline vigilante activity. Let's not slide down the slippery slope to Central/South American-style social cleansing, shall we? The Auckland Council needs to be told in no uncertain terms that social exclusion of street sex workers (and beggars too, for that matter) is unacceptable and will be vigorously fought by LGBT and other progressive Aucklanders.
As for Rev Low, I'd be more impressed if she didn't confuse transsexuals with "transvestites" in that cited article. It's bloody transphobic and trivialises the lived experience of gender identity discrimination amongst transwomen in this context.
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Hard News: Local interest, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Thank you, namesake. The Prostitutes Collective is strongly opposed to child prostitution and the New Zealand Police could find no unambiguous evidence of underage children involved in street sex work at either Hunters Corner or Northcrest. There were street kids there, but they may not have been involved in street sex work. Added to which, the (former Manukau and now Auckland) Council refuses to let street sex workers work from council rental accomodation, nor does it open public toilets past midnight, nor does it seem to want to get tough with Manukau City centre pubs and other liquor outlets. Instead, vulnerable cis/transwomen are being blamed and victimised. How is this not a case of attempted social exclusion, Russell?
Added to which, the defunct vigilante group Papatoetoe Reclaiming Our Streets used the same vigilante tactics as Wayne Hawker is doing down in Christchurch and ended up harrassing and frightening an elderly couple whose motor vehicle registration details were erroneously reported as having been seen frequenting street sex workers in this area.
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Hard News: Local interest, in reply to Russell Brown,
Nope, sorry, Russell...not when it means that vulnerable Maori and Pacific Island whakawahine and fa'afafine/transgender and cisgender street sex workers will be adversely affected by any such prohibitionist legislation. Anti-soliciting bans haven't worked in France and New South Wales, so why do their backers assume that they will work here? I think you might want to read the excellent work that Dr Gillian Abel at the Otago University School of Public Health has done on substantive reasons why street sex work should not be prohibited.
Granted, we need to concretely add gender identity to the Human Rights Act and get community groups involved in providing alternative vocational paths for some street sex workers, but I do not believe that the prohibitionist Manukau City Council (Regulating Prostitution in Specified Places) Bill is anything other than populist moral panic territory.
And I refuse to abandon vulnerable Maori/Pacific Island transgender members of the New Zealand LGBT community.
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Do not vote for the candidates asterisked below, given their stances against the health, safety and human rights of Manukau street sex workers and their support for the Manukau City Council (Regulating Prostitution in Specified Places) Bill, or opposition to Epsom's boutique brothels, or strongarm tactics against Christchurch sex workers:
Local board candidates
Mangere-Otahuhu – 7 members:Nick Bakulich, Labour
Carrol Elliott, Labour
Kayla Filimoehala, Mana
Roger Fowler, Mana
Roger Gummer, Independent
Tafafunai Tasi Lauese, Labour
Christine O’Brien, Labour
James Papali’i, Mana
Sam Patua, Independent
Leau Peter Skelton, Labour*
Lydia Sosene, Labour
Kevin Stitt, Conservative*
Walter Togiamua, Labour
Joe Trinder, ManaOtara-Papatoetoe:
Otara subdivision – 3 members
Efeso Collins, Labour
Lotu Fuli, Labour
Mary Gush, Labour
Ian Hei Hei, Mana
Jenn Jefferson, Otara Local Independents
Willie Maea, Otara Local Independents
Tupou Tamata Manapori – Vanessa Naden, Independent
Poutoa Papali’i, Otara Local Independents
Jim Sinclair, Otara FirstPapatoetoe subdivision – 4 members
Sina Aiolupotea-Aiono, Team Papatoetoe
Ashraf Choudhary, Team Papatoetoe
Stephen Grey, Papatoetoe Local Independents*
Alistaire Hall, Team Papatoetoe
Donna Lee, Papatoetoe Local Independents
John McCracken, Papatoetoe Local Independents*
Paul O’Brien, Papatoetoe Local Independents
Ross Robertson, Team Papatoetoe [Former Parliamentary Sponsor of Manukau anti-soliciting bill]*
Anthony Ryan
Ray Strong, IndependentEden-Albert Ward:
Bevan Chuang*
Mayoral Candidates:
Len Brown*Christchurch City Council:
Aaron Keown*
Wayne Hawker* -
At the same time, I'm uneasy about some of Jones' parliamentary caucus supporters.
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Wearing my local diabetes group research officer hat for a moment, I do think that Jones idea of regulating supermarket prices is a damned good one. Mind you, I also supported Labour's proposals to abolish GST on food for much the same reason.
Craig Y
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Hard News: And one war ends?, in reply to Russell Brown,
I have no problem with that at all, Russell. I am certainly for reliable evidence-based research as a tool for public policy in this context. Class A drugs (or analogous categories in any replacement legislation) need to be those of proven toxicity, harm and injury to others. And we also need to can the double standard and get tough with cancer sticks and booze.
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Personally, while I strongly support medicinal cannabis and derivative access for those who need it (because I'm a gay man, because there's a strong evidential basis for its palliative effects in the context of HIV/AIDS and other medical conditions), I sometimes despair of NORML and ALCP ever being able to arrange it on our end. At times, the pot decriminalisation lobby in NZ has been its own worst enemy. I'd want safeguards against distributing it to people with schizophrenia, given that it'd risk cannabinoid psychosis in their specific instance due to genetic reasons, but otherwise, I'd be comfortable with decriminalisation on recreational grounds.
Although I'm a complete alcohol and drug teetotaller through individual choice, let it be noted! Never supped or inhaled, never intend to. However, I'm no paragon of morality and I won't stop others from doing so in cases of low risk.
Why can't we just get rid of Class C MOD drugs and concentrate our attention on Class As?
Craig Y
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Robertson/Ardern, with Cunliffe as shadow finance spokesperson.