Particular issues

In addition to considering regular statements provided in accordance with the Archives Act, the Council is provided with regular reports by the Archives on its activities in managing the archival record and its role in ensuring the preservation of the essential current records of the government.

Specific areas of focus for the Council during the year include the following.

Legislation

The Advisory Council has a keen interest in the operation of the Archives Act 1983 and has supported the strengthening of the legislation to provide for the recordkeeping role of the National Archives. The Council assessed proposals for amendments to the Act and, in February 2001, established a sub-committee to give detailed consideration to proposed amendments to the Act. The Council endorsed the sub-committee’s recommendations at its meeting in May 2001.

Role of the Advisory Council

The Council reflected on and discussed its role with a view to defining how it might best advise on and contribute to the work of the Minister and the National Archives. The Council examined carefully the role played by advisory and governing councils of other Australian and international archival organisations before drafting a statement of its role. The Minister has endorsed this statement.

Centenary of Federation

The Council received reports on the wide range of projects developed by the National Archives commemorating the Centenary of Federation. These projects include the Belonging exhibition; the new Federation Gallery and its inaugural exhibition and associated publication, Charters of Our Nation, and video, The Constitutional Alphabet; the Documenting a Democracy website; the education kit 1901 and All That; the Where to now, Australia? lecture series; and the publication Canberra Following Griffin by Paul Reid.

Census 2001

The Council has long held the view that name-identified census records should be retained and ultimately made available to the public. The Council welcomed the Commonwealth Government’s initiative to allow respondents to determine whether their 2001 census information will be retained in a ‘time capsule’ and made publicly available by the National Archives after 99 years. The publicity campaign for the ‘time capsule’ project was of immense interest to members who invited a representative of the Australian Bureau of Statistics to brief them on the Bureau’s approach to this issue.

Changes to the location of offices

The buildings leased by the Archives are ageing, increasingly expensive to maintain, and larger than required. In 1998, the Archives made strategic property decisions setting a schedule for seeking new premises around the country. Implementation of these decisions began this year. Public and media interest in Adelaide and Brisbane about this aspect of the Archives’ work was drawn to the Council’s attention.

Improving accessibility to the collection through digitisation

The Council was involved in discussion of a wide range of issues associated with the Archives’ objective to improve accessibility by digitising records for researchers. How best to establish the balance between improving access and equity of access while protecting the concerns of individuals about the release of personal information was thoroughly discussed. The Council expressed itself satisfied that a responsible course has been adopted and will be briefed on community feedback about the initiative.

Parliamentary Joint Committee inquiry into ASIO’s public reporting activity

The Council considered the large backlog of ASIO access applications for internal reconsideration at its November meeting. It noted that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO had recently completed a review into ASIO’s public reporting activity, which recommended that ASIO make available a list of the titles of files more than thirty years old. The Council endorsed this recommendation and wrote to the Minister for the Arts and the Centenary of Federation recommending that he advise the Attorney-General of his support. The Minister did so.

Promoting recordkeeping

The work of the Archives in ensuring that modern records in whatever format or location are preserved for future generations is strongly supported by the Council. The collaboration of other agencies, such as the Australian National Audit Office, in achieving good recordkeeping is important to the work of the Archives. The Auditor-General, Mr Pat Barrett, discussed the role of his office in encouraging improved recordkeeping at the Council’s August meeting. Regular reports on progress in promoting best-practice recordkeeping to Commonwealth agencies were provided to the Council including a detailed report in May.