DICTATORIAL BILL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 150, 10 June 1936, Page 7

DICTATORIAL BILL

Complaint by Former P.M.G. OPPOSITION STAND By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, Jane 9. Speaking against the Broadcasting Bill in the House of Representatives to-night, the Hon. A. Hamilton (Nat., Wallace) said that the Minister had introduced the Bill as if there were nothing in it, but it was an important, far-reaching Bill and one of the most autocratic and dictatorial Bills ever introduced in the House. The Bill would meet with considerable opposition and investigation during its passage. The Minister had said that the Government would control broadcasting for the people, but Mr Hamilton said it was the listeners who should be considered more than the people generally. He also paid a tribute to the Broadcasting Board. Ho said that the Government was taking over a very eiiicicient and well-run service. He agreed that any Government would get into difficulties through playing about with coinmecial-advertising stations. He urged the Government to step warily in dealing with that matter. He said it was easy to criticise but claimed that the present service was equal to anything in the world, excepting, perhaps, the 8.8. C.

Mr Hamilton said that the Opposition would oppose political control of broadcasting. The only places in the world where political control existed were Germany and Italy. It was Hitlerism and Mussoliniism. The provision would not pass with the consent of the Opposition. If there was anything savouring of dictatorship it was that provision of political control. Dictatorship was a noxious weed all over the world to-day.

The Opposition was also strongly opposed to commercial stations which were owned and controlled by the Government, and it looked like a weapon to whip the newspapers into tune if they did not report the Government as “the Government thought they should, and if they criticised the Government. Ho contended that the newspapers had been responsible for the Government’s victory at the polls. . He said that the Labour Party went in on an anti-Gov-ernment wave stirred up by the newspapers. Air Hamilton did not think that the finances would be as well handled by the Government as they had been handled in the past by the board. He ventured to express the opinion that the present system, free from political control and from commercial profit, was the best system. It was not a Government problem and had no right to be controlled by the Government. There was some ri,.ht for it to be controlled by the listeners.

The Bill wiped away all independence, and political control was paramount. Ho thought it could be called a “grab Government”: it was grabbing everything. Ho admitted that the B stations were popular and were necessary at the beginning before the day of high-power stations, but it was a question now whether they would not over-capitalise the business. Highpowered stations rendered B stations unnecessary. He thought that the subsidising of private stations was not in line with the Government’s policy, and ho thought it would mean trouble for the Government in the future. Mr Hamilton referred to the blocking of the Friendly Hoad station during the elections and said it was done by an officer of his department, but not under his instructions, though he had accepted the responsibility. The provision to advertise was waving the big stick over the provincial newspapers, but the Government had nothing to blame the newspapers for; it was due to the newspapers that they were ou the Treasury benches.