ACT’s Laura McClure is right: It's time To abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority

ACT MP Laura McClure has sparked a necessary debate with her member’s bill to abolish the Broadcasting Standards Authority, calling time on what she describes as an outdated and unnecessary institution. After years of creeping overreach, ballooning levies, and increasingly irrelevant regulation, her proposal lands at exactly the right moment.

“The reality is the BSA is an old dog trying to learn new tricks at this point or trying to stay relevant,” she said. That simple assessment reflects what many in the media and the public have quietly believed for years. The BSA hears very few complaints, upholds even fewer, yet continues to cost broadcasters hundreds of thousands of dollars. As Plunket noted, Sky Television alone paid “half a million dollars in levies” last year without receiving a single complaint.

For McClure, this is a clear case of waste and overreach. “We’ve considered the levies… that could be two or three extra journalists on board,” she told Plunket, acknowledging the tough economic reality facing media organisations. At a time when newsrooms are shrinking and advertisers are tightening their belts, a regulatory authority that provides “not really any actual value” has become a luxury New Zealand can no longer justify.

More importantly, McClure argues that the BSA has begun acting outside its mandate. Referencing recent controversies, she said the BSA is “taking on what I think the general public would feel is far beyond their reach. And that’s a worry.” When an unelected tribunal becomes “a law unto themselves,” as Plunket put it, the public rightly questions whether it still serves a democratic purpose.

The response to the bill has been striking. “Overwhelmingly positive,” McClure said. She has “not had one person” tell her the BSA should stay. Instead, New Zealanders are “sick of feeling like we’re part of a nanny state” and are ready to see outdated bureaucracies retired. This bill taps into a broader mood: taxpayers want smaller government, fewer agencies, and fewer regulations that restrict rather than empower.

McClure made clear that ACT sees this as part of a wider push. “If ACT had it our way, we would 100 percent reduce the size of government,” she said, hinting that the BSA may be the first of several agencies facing the political bonfire. The bill may also gain support from New Zealand First and could develop into a full coalition initiative. With the prime minister reportedly unhappy with the BSA’s conduct, momentum for reform is growing.

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Abolishing the BSA would not leave the public without avenues for complaint. As McClure notes, “there is lots of mechanisms in place to complain if you need to.” What it would do is eliminate an expensive, slow, and increasingly irrelevant bureaucracy that has outlived its purpose.

McClure’s bill is not only timely but brave. It challenges a long-standing institution and asks whether it still delivers value in a modern media environment dominated by digital platforms, social media, and consumer-driven accountability.

If New Zealand wants a leaner government, a freer media landscape, and a break from nanny-state oversight, then this bill is a step in the right direction. Laura McClure is right: it is time to let the Broadcasting Standards Authority go.