Paul Goldsmith: Media and Communications Minister on the decision to shut down the Broadcasting Standards Authority

The Government says it will be up to audiences to decide if they care whether broadcasters self-regulate.  

It's shutting down the Broadcasting Standards Authority, sayings it's past its use-by date in the online age.  

The Media and Communications Minister expects the Media Council will become the primary regulator for journalism.

Paul Goldsmith told Mike Hosking he doesn't have to opt-in. 

He says it's voluntary and broadcasters can explain their decision to join or not to their audience. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We got there at last, didn't we? The Broadcasting Standards
Authority is finally getting put out of its misery. Once
podcasts and streaming arrived. It all looked a bit old
world really. Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Media and Communications, as
with us, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning, Mike.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Do you reckon anyone cares about? This is a bit
beltweg bit in house media.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
I mean I looked up.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
The world is not going to be fundamentally changed by it.
But governments tend to grow and add pieces. It's nicely
every now and again to shrink them and say, well,
actually this particular group has served its purpose, but the
world's moved on and we'll just close it down and
look to other solutions.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Why did it take you so long to reach the decision?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Well, we've just had to work through the government processes,
get all the coalition partners agreeing, take it through cabinet,
get an agreement, and the way we.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Go, I would have thought you could have done it
by morning tea on day one. Personally, well yes, but.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Well we've got a lot that we're doing in government
and we just have to work our ways. We got
there in the end, and now we've got to legislate
for it, so there's a bit of still more work
to do the BSA it does relate to other pieces
of legislation, so there's a little bit of work to do,
but we'll get there pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
How big is the group of people I saw some
woman who I think was a former BSA member yesterday
bemoaning its end. How big is the group of people
who will go it's not fear and you've made a mistake.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Ah, I'm sure there will be plenty, but not huge.
I mean, there were ninety complaints according to the annual
report last year, so we're not talking about huge numbers.
And the point is that there's got the Media Council
which will be there to uphold journalistic standards if people
want to do it. But ultimately the biggest thing is

(01:42):
media are vying for attention with other things such as
TikTok and Facebook, and the primary value is that they
can demonstrate that they've sound independent journalism adding some value.
That's what's going to survive in modern business, not some
process that takes a long time through an independent b essay.

(02:03):
I think that if you wanted to.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Are you going to expand the media Council to include
people like me because I'm not interested.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Well, the point is it's voluntary, and if you don't
want to be involved, then you can say so, and
you can explain to your listeners why you don't want
to be and if your listeners think that makes sense
and continue to listen to you, well that's good. So
you know, it's up to it's up to people to
explain their actions.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, exactly, because I looked up the Media Council and
it's just full of lawyers and consultants. And so the
problem with that is, I mean, on journalistic integrity, I
get around the law.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
I understand that.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
But if they're going to start, you know, making judgments
on how I say things and when I say it
and stuff like that, they have not a clue.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
They're not qualified to do that, are they.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Well, and then well, of course it's up to the
profession to argue about who they want on the council.
And you know that's the same in any kind of
voluntary organization. If you don't like the people in charge,
you can either not be part of it, or you
can join it and change.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
The people in charge.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
And so that's something you can figure out for yourself
over time.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
All right, nice to talk to you, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Paul Goldsmith, Minister for Media and Communications.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
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