Page 5040 - Week 16 - Wednesday, 27 November 1991
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A licensing board is not a new wheel. We have such boards for nurses, lawyers, doctors, dentists, veterinarians and gasfitters. All this legislation does is extend that administrative principle of regulation to licensing brothels and escort agencies - - -
Mr Collaery: Yes, but they are self-regulatory.
MR MOORE: Mr Collaery interjects that they are self-regulatory. As I have said from the time I tabled this Bill and the time I signed the committee report, I am prepared to accept amendments. I am still prepared to talk about how we can adapt to meet Mr Collaery's requirements and indeed other members' requirements. I do not believe that we will be able to reach Mrs Nolan's preferred position because I think that would cause more problems than it would resolve. That is very much my personal opinion.
Mr Speaker, I think it is very important to take up a couple of the points that Dr Kinloch raised. He was moved, in his next best thing to a sermon, to read about the woman caught in adultery and about Christ's response to those wishing to stone her. My immediate reaction to this story - which, of course, is familiar to all of us - is: What happened to all those men that Dr Kinloch referred to? Why were they not stoned? Our morality has moved and changed substantially since the time of Christ.
However, I think it is important for us to understand the basic values - and I think this is really what Dr Kinloch was referring to - that Christ always espoused: Compassion, understanding and tolerance. We do not necessarily have to condone. I am not saying that. As I read it, the philosophy behind Christianity is tolerance, understanding, compassion. The word that Christ himself used was "love", which is often translated as "charity". The intolerant bigots in our society prefer to quote the Old Testament and the laws that Christ supposedly came to replace. When it suits them, they forget what Christ said.
It is important for us to understand that if religious bodies wish to influence their members - and Dr Kinloch made this point - of course they have the right and the responsibility to do that. We as legislators should allow them to influence their members. But we as legislators should also take action to protect any individual within our society. It is quite clear that the rights of workers, in this case prostitutes, are infringed. That is clearly set out in the committee report.
Dr Kinloch started by saying that this is such a difficult issue to deal with. I really do not accept that it is a difficult issue. I think the issue is quite clear. It is inappropriate for legislators to legislate in respect of prostitution. I think almost all speakers have agreed that it is appropriate to decriminalise prostitution. If people
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