A fringe Christian group's vendetta against New Zealand's gay chief censor and his deputy has been renewed this week, with pressure being put on the government to replace them both. The Society for the Promotion of Community Standards says Deputy Chief Censor Nicola McCully's term expired in September and no moves have been made to replace her. It wants her out, along with Chief Censor Bill Hastings, whose term expires later this year. However, a spokesman for Internal Affairs Minister Rick Barker says this situation is not unusual as last year was an election year, and a "period of restraint" is placed on ministers, preventing them from significant appointments during that time. When this happens, the incumbent continues in their job. With the formation of a new government coming almost right on top of Christmas, the delay in reviewing McCully's position has been compounded. The SPCS says the Office of Film and Literature Classification under Hastings and McCully has failed to "protect the public from the pandemic of obscene and sexually degrading publications that are being regularly cleared by the Office for adult 'entertainment'". The two examples they cite are the obscure art-house films Baise-Moi and Irreversible, both festival films which received nationwide cinema releases and exposure to a wide audience only after the publicity generated by the SPCS attempts to ban them both. The largely ineffective lobby group has nevertheless become notorious enough to warrant its own entry on web-based encyclopedia Wikipedia. Described as a "Christian fundamentalist anti-gay group", the entry says the SPCS appears "largely concerned with criticising the decisions of the Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand) and the current Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, seemingly on the basis that he is gay." Chief Censor Bill Hastings told GayNZ.com that neither he nor his deputy, who has just recovered from a serious illness, have any say over whether they will be reappointed, but have every intention of continuing in their roles if asked to do so. "Our briefing paper to the incoming minister notes that the Classification Act does not restrict the number of terms the Censors may serve," he says. "We've both indicated our interest in serving another term."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Wednesday, 1st February 2006 - 12:00pm