BROADCASTING BILL National Replies To Labour Pledge

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31802, 5 October 1968, Page 1

BROADCASTING BILL National Replies To Labour Pledge

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 4.

Labour’s election pledge to withdraw warrants for the operation of private radio and television stations was “checkmated” in Parliament today. The Opposition was told by Mr H. J. Walker (Nat., St Albans) that if it became the Government and cancelled the warrants, the next National Government would reintroduce provision for their issue.

The National Government, he said, would also pay compensation to the private radio and television companies which had been operating under warrants.

Mr Walker spoke during the second reading debate on the controversial Broadcasting Authority Bill, which sets up an authority to consider applications for private radio and television stations.

Commenting on the Opposition’s promise to withdraw warrants if it became the Government, Mr Walker said: “This is just another example of the Labour Party completely ignoring the wishes of the majority of the people.” The Labour Party had signed its own death warrant in next year's General Election because of its opposition to the establishment of private radio and television stations, according to Mrs E. I. Tombleson (Gisborne), a Government back-bencher. The Opposition’s attitude to the Broadcasting Authority Bill, she said, was like that of “a dictatorship.” She added: “The people of New Zealand do not like dictatorships.” “Poor Little Davids” Mrs Tombleson questioned the right of a possible future Labour Government to close down private broadcasting stations if the stations were acting within the law. Mrs Tombleson said: “The Labour Party will not countenance private enterprise and competition in any form.” Emphasising that the Opposition's fears were unfounded, she said that private broadcasting stations would be “poor little Davids against the N.Z.B.C. colossus." Mrs Tombleson, who told the House she had once been a radio announcer and scriptwriter in Australia, said she believed the current exodus of artistically-talented young people from New Zealand would be reversed with the advent of private broadcasting. “They leave this country because there is not sufficient work for them,” she said. “With private enterprise, they will have the opportunity to find more employment."

But Mr T. Y. Young (Lab., Hutt) told the House that “the present set-up of broadcasting” was very democratic, and as near as anybody could get to protecting listeners’ and viewers’ rights. “This bill would set up a new standard of control by shareholders of companies,” he said. Church organisations believed that present standards of broadcasting would be lost if private broadcasting were permitted. The Government had been accused of making an agreement with the metropolitan daily newspapers that as long as the Government received

“kind” treatment until the next election it would allow the operation of private radio and television stations. Mr S. A. Whitehead (Lab., Nelson) said: “It appears to me that an agreement has already been made by the Government that providing the newspapers will be kind to them between now and the General Election they will get the go-ahead for private broadcasting stations.” The Government was not dissatisfied with the work of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, but this did not mean it could not do better, or that its services could not be improved, said Mr H. E. L. Pickering (Nat., Rangiora). Mr Pickering suggested broadcasting and television needed the “spur of competition” to get greater efficiency. “Competition is desirable to maintain keen standards and to get the best results,” he said. But Mr M. A. Connelly (Lab., Riecarton) chided Mr Pickering for urging competition in the field of radio and television. Referring to the News Media Ownership Act of 1965. Mr Connelly said Mr Pickering while now calling for competition in news media supported a Bill which “maintained the National Partybiased monopoly of mass communication."