David Harvey
The Broadcasting (Disestablishment of Broadcasting Standards Authority) Amendment Bill was introduced into Parliament on 22 September 2026 – one day before the House rises for the last time before the election.
It will not get a first reading. The plan is for it to remain, hopefully to be picked up and advanced by a returned version of the current coalition government.
This amounts to a symbolic gesture and an expression of hope.
New regime
One of the questions that accompanied the original announcement that the government would disestablish the BSA was what would replace it. The bill answers that question and the answer is –nothing.
This will, of course, upset those who are inured to, and see value in, the culture of complaint. There will still be an avenue for them, but it will not be funded or supported by the State.
Rather, it is anticipated that the responsibility for complaints and standards will fall on the industry to regulate itself, including through self-regulatory bodies like the New Zealand Media Council.
The broadcasting levy will no longer be payable but if the NZMC takes over the complaints regime, it will require greater funding. But that is a matter for the NZMC and not the State.
Classifying material
One matter that remains is that of classification of broadcast material. The bill repeals the requirements to classify and label broadcast content, but audiences will be supported in continuing to make informed choices about the content they and their families may watch.
The bill allows TV broadcasters’ on-demand platforms (such as TVNZ+ and Three Now) to be included in the classification labelling framework for commercial on-demand video platforms under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.
Once broadcasters have been included in the framework, they will be able to use an approved self-rating system to issue ratings and labels for their on-demand and broadcast content to ensure common audience information across a range of content delivery formats. Broadcasters included in the framework will be required to pay the applicable levy to the Classification Office.
Given that this shifts classification from the BSA to the Classification Office, there can be little objection to the proposal. Audiences are entitled to some guidance as to the suitability of content which they may accept or ignore as they wish.
Broadcasting activities will be included among the strict liability offences under the Classification Act, thus maintaining a prohibition on broadcasting content that has been classified as objectionable under that Act.
As matters stand, membership of certain regulatory organisations provide advantages for news media. These legislative privileges and exemptions for media organisations that are subject to the oversight of a recognised self-regulatory body, such as the New Zealand Media Council, will ensure news media can continue to perform their democratic functions.
Going forward
If the bill is enacted – and that depends very much on the outcome of the election – it will come into force on either 1 September 2027 or earlier is set by an Order in Council.
The BSA will continue to adjudicate on complaints in the meantime and will have time to resolve outstanding complaints and complete wind-down processes.
Broadcasters will have time to adapt their classification and labelling systems before their on-demand platforms become subject to requirements under the Classification Act.
This bill is welcome. The BSA egregiously extended its jurisdiction from what had been recognised for 20 years and into the online space in asserting jurisdiction over The Platform.
In doing so, it sowed the seeds of its own downfall. The bill is the correct legal response to an agency that clearly exceeded its statutory mandate.
Self-regulation means the industry setting and enforcing its own standards, with no state body holding power over it. That is what should follow, not another regulator wearing a different name. Yet there is the spectre of that in proposals for regulation of on-line content put forward by the Department of Internal Affairs.
So, the sun has begun to set upon the Broadcasting Standards Authority. Whether it sinks below the horizon and the BSA is no more depends upon what happens on 7 November.
Postscript: official documents
The bill contains references to background materials which may be of interest.
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage produced a regulatory impact statement on 18 June 2026 to help inform the main policy decisions taken by the government relating to the contents of this bill.
Copies of the regulatory impact statement can be found at:
https://www.mch.govt.nz/publications/broadcasting-standards-authority-disestablishment
https://www.regulation.govt.nz/publications-and-resources/regulatory-analysis-summaries
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage provided the following documents relating to its review of this bill and its process for developing it, for consistency with the principles of responsible regulation under the Regulatory Standards Act 2025
https://www.mch.govt.nz/publications/broadcasting-standards-authority-disestablishment
In addition, the ministry prepared a statement that briefly explains the government’s reasons for any inconsistency with the principles of responsible regulation that is identified in the consistency accountability statement.
A copy of the document can be found at:
https://www.mch.govt.nz/publications/broadcasting-standards-authority-disestablishment
David Harvey is a retired District Court Judge and a member of The Law Association’s Public & Administrative Law Committee
David Harvey
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