Prostitution Bylaw retained

Council has decided to retain its existing Prostitution Bylaw largely unchanged after undertaking a review required of Council under section 158 of the Local Government Act 2002.

A handful of minor amendments were made to the existing Bylaw (adopted in 2004) after Council considered 267 submissions on the matter at an Extraordinary Council meeting held on Friday 26 June.

The minor amendments included the deletion from the Bylaw of unnecessary operational detail how the sensitive sites register and will be maintained by Council. When the Bylaw was drafted in 2004 a number of transitional provisions were included to enable the Bylaw to come into effect. As the Bylaw is now 5 years old, most of those provisions are no longer required and have been removed.

None of the changes alter the intent or the effect of the Bylaw in any way.

Submissions showed substantial support for the amended bylaw. Council received 267 submissions. Of those submissions only two submissions were received in opposition and two submissions sought amendments to the Bylaw.

Councillor John Gower says, "Council, through the recent review, has reinforced that its Prostitution Bylaw is working effectively - this bylaw over recent years has been tested in both the High Court and Court of Appeal and been successfully defended on both occasions".