Police watch N.Z. parlour girls

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 35

Police watch N.Z. parlour girls

By

CHRIS PETERS,

Sydney NZPA staff correspondent New Zealand women are crossing the Tasman in increasing numbers for the rich pickings to be had in the escort agencies and massage parlours of Queensland and the Northern Territory, according to the Sydney police. The numbers, which have been enough to attract police attention in both Brisbane and Darwin, have grown significantly over the last few months, but there is nothing the police in either city are able or

prepared to do about it Detective Chief Inspector Gerry Cunneen, New Zealand’s police liaison officer with the Australian forces, said there was a concern that the women could be caught up in the crime that is often associated with both the escort agencies and massage parlours and their vice overtones. He said one New Zealand woman in Darwin told the police she could earn about sAustBoo ($1040) a night working for an escort agency. Women working for such agencies normally charge sAustl3o ($169) an hour for their services —

30 per cent of which goes to the agency owner. In Brisbane, the police say the women have been arriving up to four at a time by plane, and are often collected from the airport in a RollsRoyce. Checks have revealed that the car is registered in the name of a man who used to own massage parlours in Auckland, but has no criminal record. “You would have to describe the numbers of women coming in as a steady trickle,” Mr Cunneen said. “There are maybe an average of four or five a month to each city, but it has been going on for a

year or so now and the numbers have become significant enough for the police to notice them and investigate. “Some of the women are known to the police in New Zealand. They are usually aged in their mid20s and seem to be coming mainly from Auckland." He said there is no evidence of the women going back to New Zealand, but suggested there could be something of a circuit of main cities around Australia that the women work. Brisbane and the Gold Coast are well known tourist centres, but the Northern Territory and

Darwin with its new casino are a big attraction for tourists and a mecca for women and men working in such areas as escort agencies. “There is nothing obviously illegal in what the women are doing, but there is a lot of crime associated with this sort of work, and the police, particularly in Darwin, have made it their business to know who is working in escort agencies and massage parlours,” he said. "Australian law enforcement agencies can’t do very much about these women coming over, but have noted that it is going on.”