chronology

This page offers a brief chronology of censorship in Australia and New Zealand. It is indicative only. There's a separate, more general communications and media timeline.

     colonial

!832 Governor Bourke formalises licensing of theatrical performances in NSW

1858 Customs regulations in place in New Zealand

1892 New Zealand Offensive Publications Act 1892

     federation

1901 Commonwealth Post & Telegraph Act 1901 empowers Postmaster Generals' Department to impound and destroy offending material

1902 Western Australia Indecent Publications & Articles Act 1902

1907 Victorian Chief Secretary bans screenings of The Kelly Gang in Benalla and Wangarratta

1908 NSW Theatres & Public Halls Act 1908

1910 New Zealand Indecent Publications Act 1910

1915 Australian newspaper censorship under War Precautions Act

1916 New Zealand Cinematograph-film Censorship Act 1916

1916 establishment of office of the Chief Film Censor in New Zealand

1917 Commonwealth Censorship Board established to regulate import of film

1919 James Joyce's Ulysses banned by Commonwealth

1930 Norman Lindsay's Redheap banned by Commonwealth but available in NZ, UK, Canada and US

1932 Aldous Huxley's Brave New World banned by Commonwealth

1933 Commonwealth government establishes Book Censorship Advisory Committee

1934 Book Censorship Abolition League formed in Melbourne

1936 League becomes Council for Civil Liberties

1936 anti-Nazi play banned in NSW, on advice of Commonwealth Attorney-General RG Menzies, under Theatres & Public Halls Act 1908

1937 Book Censorship Advisory Committee becomes Literature Censorship Board

1937 Joyce's Ulysses unbanned by Commonwealth

1941 Joyce's Ulysses re-banned by Commonwealth

1946 Robert Close's Love Me Sailor banned by Commonwealth

1946 Christina Stead's Letty Fox, Her Luck banned by Commonwealth

1947 Western Australia Censorship of Films Act 1947

1948 Christina Stead's A Little Tea, a Little Chat banned by Commonwealth

1954 Mazengarb Report on Moral Delinquency in Children & Adolescents

1956 Commonwealth Film Censorship Board established under established under the Customs (Cinematograph Films) Regulations

1957 Commonwealth Customs seizes copies of Catcher in the Rye intended as gift from US Ambassador to federal government

1963 New Zealand Indecent Publications Act 1963

1963 New Zealand Indecent Publications Tribunal established

     convergence

1968 uniform State-Commonwealth censorship laws

1968 America Hurrah! banned in NSW under Theatres & Public Halls Act 1908

1969 Minister for Customs Don Chipp (later founder of Australian Democrats) bans Tynan's Oh! Calcutta book

1971 ACT Film Classification Act 1971

1971 South Australia Classification of Films for Public Exhibition Act 1971

1974 South Australia Classification of Publications Act 1974

1975 NSW Indecent Articles, Classified Publications Act 1975

1984 Commonwealth enacts Classification of Publications Ordinance 1983 (ACT)

1984 NSW Film & Video Tape Classification Act 1984

1984 Victorian Films Act introduces X-rating

1984 Tasmania Classification of Publications Act 1984

1984 Western Australia Censorship of Films Amendment Act 1984

1985 Northern Territory Classification of Publications & Films Act 1985

1987 Queensland Literature Board of Review lifts ban on international edition of Playboy

1987 New Zealand Video Recordings Authority established

1987 Western Australia Video Tapes Classification & Control Act 1987

1988 Report of Federal Parliament Joint Select Committee on Video Material

1989 New Zealand Ministerial Committee of Inquiry into Pornography

1989 New Zealand Broadcasting Act 1989

1989 ACT Publications Control Ordinance 1989

1990 New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990

1990 Victorian Classification of Films & Publications Act 1990

1991 Queensland Classification of Films Act 1991 and Classification of Publications Act 1991

1991 Australian Law Reform Commission Censorship Procedure report

1993 Mature Adult (MA) film classification in Australia

1993 New Zealand Films, Videos & Publications Classification Act 1993

1994 New Zealand Office of Film & Literature Classification established

1995 Commonwealth Classification (Publications, Films & Computer Games) Act 1995

1995 New South Wales Classification (Publications, Films & Computer Games) Enforcement Act 1995

1995 Victorian Classification (Publications, Films & Computer Games) Enforcement Act 1995

1995 ACT Classification (Publications, Films & Computer Games) Act 1995

1995 Queensland Classification of Computer Games & Images Act 1995

1995 South Australian Classification (Publications, Films & Computer Games) Act 1995

1995 Tasmanian Classification (Publications, Films & Computer Games) Enforcement Act 1995

1996 Western Australian Censorship Act

1996 Northern Territory Classification of Publications, Films & Computer Games Act 1996

1997 Commonwealth Chief Censor John Dickie says that despite stringent codes for offensive material such as child pornography "it will not be possible to ban material from the Internet"

1999 Commonwealth Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Act 1999

2001 community and industry criticism of NSW Classification (Publications, Films & Computer Games) Enforcement Amendment Bill 2001





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