As detailed in Section (A), we appeal to Government and policy-makers to make the following amendment to the proposed Amendment Bill:

Provide for a distinction to be made between film publications that are outright ‘objectionable’ and publications that are ‘objectionable - with a qualifying provision’, especially for those that have been formally classified by a recognised overseas classification authority, such as the BBFC.

As detailed in Section (C), we appeal to Government and policy-makers to make the following amendments to the Films, Videos, and Publications Classifications Regulations 1994:

1. Regulations 9 and 12 be amended to allow the Labelling Body to assign a rating or classification to those films classified as “15” by the BBFC in the UK.

1a. In addition, that Regulations 9 and 12 be amended to allow the Labelling Body to assign a rating or classification to those films classified as “MA 15+” by the FCBA in Australia.

2. Regulations 18 be urgently amended to allow the Labelling Body to assign a rating or classification to those films previously classified, either by the OFLC or an OCA, that also contain extra features (particularly trailers and documentary material).

3. Regulation 3 (Meaning of “consistent in character” with main feature) be amended to provide a flexible rating mechanism for the infinite trailer-feature permutations that are offered by the DVD presentation format.

4. An additional clause to be added to Regulation 12 allowing the Labelling Body to assign a rating or classification to programs that have previously aired on New Zealand television with the equivalent of the classification assigned by an OCA.

As detailed in Section (D), we appeal to Government also to consider:

Designating the FVLB to be the gate-keepers of all prior classified publications in New Zealand, and for the OFLC to deal exclusively in non-classified material.