Statements required under the Archives Act
The Archives Act requires the Minister and the Director-General to place before the Council certain materials that specifically relate to disposal practices and special access matters.
National Archives’ records disposal practices
Section 25 of the Archives Act requires the Director-General to furnish the Council with a statement setting out the particulars of the practices for the destruction or other disposal of Commonwealth records agreed upon between the Archives and an Australian Government institution. At each meeting of the Council, the Archives provides advice on records disposal actions in train.
In 2005–06 records disposal authorities (RDAs) were issued to the Australian Electoral Commission, Australian War Memorial, Department of Family and Community Services, Geosciences Australia, Australian National University, Australian Communications and Media Authority, Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, Department of Finance and Administration, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Archives is now marking the conclusion of major RDAs with a signing event jointly hosted by the Director-General and the head of the agency involved. On occasion, Council members were able to attend these events, to add to the recognition being accorded to the agency and to underscore the overall significance of recordkeeping and records management in public administration.
Throughout the year, the Council also received updates on the Archives’ whole-of-government functional analysis project, which will inform record disposal decisions in the future. Consultation on this project, including with the Council, continues.
Special access to official records
Section 56(2) of the Archives Act provides that access may be granted to official records not available for public access (that is, records not yet 30 years old – in the ‘closed period’ – or records assessed as being exempt from public access). Applications to access closed period or exempt records are made directly to agencies responsible for controlling them; deciding whether to grant access to the records is the responsibility of these agencies. Special access arrangements have been in place since 1988 to assist agencies to make decisions about records not yet available for public access.
In accordance with the requirements of section 56(5) of the Archives Act, at each meeting of the Advisory Council, the Archives provides advice on requests for, and decisions relating to, access requested under section 56(2).
Five applications for access to records under section 56(2) were received in the reporting period. All applicants were granted access by the agencies concerned, and none was refused. Of two requests received before the reporting period, one was refused and the other is pending a decision by the agencies concerned.