Are we experiencing another watershed event?

The BSA may be an unwitting catalyst for rolling back the administrative state

In 1966 there was a watershed event. A National government, under Prime Minister Keith Holyoake, tried to stifle nascent private radio. It failed: the government monopoly was broken.

The present National government can atone for its 1966 sin against freedom by joining its coalition partners to overcome the attempt by the Broadcasting Standards Authority to impose censorship on The Platform, an online media outlet.

Although radio in New Zealand started privately in the 1920s, governments started to take control in the 1930s. The Broadcasting Act 1936 led to the government buying almost all private radio stations, establishing a state monopoly which still existed in 1966.

The monopoly was broken by Radio Hauraki which in November 1966 started broadcasting from former coastal trader, the Tiri, anchored between Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel Peninsula outside the (then) 3-mile territorial limit and therefore beyond the reach of the law prohibiting broadcasts without government permission.

The intentions of the promoters were widely known. When the Tiri tried to leave the viaduct Basin, the drawbridge was closed on it. At the time I was a student at Auckland University with a flat in the University’s vicinity. I vividly recall heading off down to the viaduct Basin that evening, after hearing what was going on, where I saw the trapped Tiri with the drawbridge gripping its mast. A much fuller history and very dramatic account of this and other parts of Tiri’s history is to be found under the headline Tiri shipwreck once the beating heart of Radio Hauraki.

The exuberance accompanying the attempt to throw off government shackles is captured by this extract:

From her cockpit on the Hauraki Coast, she debuted to the carefree tune of Matt Monro’s Born Free, defiantly blasting through wireless into the homes of thousands of 1960s young Kiwi fans.

The account euphemistically refers to the role of the “authorities” in Tiri’s capture. My recollection is a little more specific. Jack Scott was the Minister of Broadcasting. He was also the Minister of Marine. Using powers he claimed to have in his latter capacity; he directed the drawbridge to be closed to stop Tiri getting out.

Members of the crowd intervened pulling ropes attached to the mast. Heeled over, Tiri was able to slip out from under the drawbridge and escape into the harbour. The first official broadcast was on 4 December 1966. Tiri continued broadcasting from at sea for several years until:

On March 24, 1970 a broadcasting licence was granted, allowing Radio Hauraki to finally broadcast on land legally after 1,111 days at sea. They’d successfully broken the radio monopoly, allowing private radio to become widespread in New Zealand.

Today, a new type of freedom, the freedom to exchange information online without government censorship, is under challenge from a government agency. This agency is the type of Crown entity which is not subject to direction from the government. Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith has been criticised for not doing something to rein in the BSA. That criticism is misplaced. He has no power to rein it in.

However, this could be another watershed moment. National should join with ACT and New Zealand First, to abolish the BSA. It is a creature from the past which should not exist in a free and democratic society.

The BSA’s actions have called public attention to the insidious role of the administrative state, the significant power of government agencies to write, interpret, and enforce their own regulations. Creative interpretation is little different to writing the regulations.

Perhaps the BSA has performed a service by demonstrating not only that it should be abolished, but also why other government agencies with

similar powers should either be abolished or have their powers severely curtailed to restore democratic accountability.