Opposition Free Vote On Indecent Publications

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30219, 26 August 1963, Page 12

Opposition Free Vote On Indecent Publications

(Prom Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, August 25. A free vote, at least among Opposition members, will be allowed in Parliament when it considers the Indecent Publications Bill.

In the absence of the Bill of Rights, which is unlikely to reappear this session from the committee by which it is being considered, the Indecent Publications Bill is the most contentious legislation this year although it does not cut across party lines.

The most disputed aspect of the bill will be its core: the establishment of a tribunal to rule on whether a publication offends against the public good. Should the public good be determined by a tribunal of experts or by the public in the form of a jury?

Other features of the bill likely to be contested are the publication of the proceedings of the tribunal, the arrangements for appeal against its decisions and the extent to which the State is entitled to act to “protect” its citizens in the fields of morality and taste. The bill defines indecent

as “describing, depicting, expressing or otherwise dealing with matters of sex, horror, cruelty or violence in a manner that is injurious to the public good.” The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nordmeyer) said today that, in line with the Labour Party’s practice of gi’-ing a free vote to members on matters of conscience, they would be at liberty to vote as they wished on this bill. Government Member One senior Government member has obtained the right from the National Party caucus to vote according to his private views although the bill has the general support of the caucus. It is possible that by the time the bill comes up for debate, the Government too will have adopted the line of the Opposition and all members could have a free vote as they did in the case of the Sale of Liquor Bill last session and of the Capital Punishment clause in the Crimes Bill the year before. But, at present the caucus holds that the question of private conscience on a moral issue is not involved.

On the question of publication of evidence before the tribunal, many members have expressed firm views on the importance of keeping court proceedings open to the public. This was when the Divorce and Matrimonial Proceedings Bill was debated in Parliament in 1958. The chairman of the

Statutes Revision Committee, which has considered the Indecent Publications Bill (Mr G. C. E. Harker) then said. “We have to be most careful before we allow anything in the nature of secret litigation. Several grave consequences could arise if Court proceedings are to go through in secret, particularly those affecting public morality. . . .” Another member of the committee, Mr R. E. Jack (Govt, Patea) said at the same time: “One of the means of ensuring that the public do have confidence in the courts and do believe that justice is being done is the keeping open of those courts to such of the public as desire to attend, or permitting the press to publish such details of cases before the courts as the public may be interested in reading.”

The bill provides that the tribunal may order that all but parties to the hearing on a publication, their counsel and reporters may be excluded and order that no reference be made to the proceedings or the decision, except in the Gazette, and except in the case of difficult or important questions.