SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

Auckland Council Should Reject Sky City Pokie Deal – says Family First NZ

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In a Media Release issued today, Family First NZ, a registered charity with the Charities Commission directed by Mr Trevor Garrett, is supporting the call for Auckland Council to make a stand against the SkyCity convention centre-for-pokie machines deal.

 “The Local Government Act empowers Councils to provide for the social well-being of our communities. Family First is calling on the Auckland Council to oppose any law change which would allow the mass influx of more ‘mechanical pickpocket’ machines to Sky City. Casinos thrive on the false promise of getting rich quickly, but the reality is that those who can least afford to gamble are gambling themselves deeper into debt,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. [Read more…]

Michael and John Chow: “Gutted” – Sex Palace demolition – “God’s Wrath at Prostitution”?

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Two Wellington sex entrepreneurs, whose 125-year old Palace Hotel (also known as Aurora Tavern) in central Auckland was in the process of being transformed into a brothel, are “gutted” that the Auckland City Council has demolished it.

Michael and John Chow’s property company, which purchased the Victorian- style building in 2008 for $3.3 million, had hoped to have it operating as a brothel by January next year, just ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. But when dangerous cracks appeared in the facade of the category B – Historic Place Trust protected  building on Thursday afternoon and an urgent investigation by Council officers and independent consultant engineers had concluded that the three-storey building could collapse, it was demolished that night.

Michael Chow is reported as saying:

“We have invested millions and millions on the property. I feel gutted, I feel they came to my home and they pulled it down. It was just a little bit of a crack“. [Emphasis added]

The decriminalising of prostitution under the Prostitution Reform Act 2003, opened up more than a little bit of a crack in the legal framework that had previously protected women to some degree from the exploitation and moral debasement – associated with prostitution. [Read more…]