Hunt Bill Re-introduced

Last month, Mr Jonathan Hunt re-introduced into Parliament his Cinematograph Films Amendment Bill. He describes this new Bill as not much different from the one he introduced last year, which had lapsed at the end of the Parliamentry session. The major difference leaves the censorship of films under the Internal Affairs Department rather than under Justice along with the Indecent Publications Tribunal.

Mr David Gascoigne, chairman of the Working Conmittee of the N Z Federation of Film Societies, to which the Wellington Film Society is affiliated, in a statement praised Mr Hunt for his "persistence and politeness", pointing out that when the Bill was introduced last year Mr Henry May, the Minister of Internal Affairs, said that a Government Bill revising the whole of the present Act would be introduced during the course of that year and that both Bills would go to a Select Conmittee for consideration. "It is a pity that Mr Hunt has had to go to the trouble of making a second attempt. Not only is the Bill reasonable in itself, but it gives tangible expression to remits passed at recent Annual Conferences of both major political parties." Mr Hunt also said that his own action did not reflect dissatisfaction with the speed at which the Minister had been acting.

Following our report about the inequality of the licencing provisions of the Cinematograph Films Act, the Government, through the secretary of Internal Affairs, Sir Patrick O'Dea, speaking on behalf of the Minister at the Motion Picture Exhibitors' Association conference at Rotorua, has announced the intention to abolish the protection the industry has enjoyed in exhibitor 1icencing, distributor 1icencing and projectionist licencing. Sir Patrick did not say when these measures would be implimented.

- reprinted from Sequence, May 1975.