A Sydney council is proposing a new law that would allow councils to shut down massage parlours in their areas for up to three days to establish whether they are operating as fly-by-night brothels.

"Councils lack the power to close these premises down permanently," a spokesman for Ku-ring-gai Council, in Sydney's north, told smh.com.au.

"What we're proposing is to close down the premises for two or three days and during that time we'd be able to take them to local court where the onus is on the owner to prove they are not operating as an illegal brothel."

The council's move, first proposed late last year by Mayor Nick Ebbeck, has gained momentum after recent reports of the council's efforts to close down an illegal brothel on the Pacific Highway.

Those efforts involved spending about $7000 on investigators to go undercover as clients at the business and report back to council.

The NSW Opposition has now thrown its support behind the move, saying if elected it would introduce the plan as legislation.

Premier Morris Iemma has also said he was willing to listen to proposals.

Ku-ring-gai Council said that, when Cr Ebbeck wrote to Mr Iemma last year, he was told existing laws were enough to deal with illegal brothels.

"Our own council can close down a restaurant that has cockroaches in its rice but we can't close down a brothel that's servicing unprotected sex," Cr Ebbeck was reported as saying last week.

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