Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]

ARCHIVES REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1992 NO. 312

Statutory Rules 1992 No. 312

(Issued by the authority of the Minister of State for Administrative Services)

Archives Act 1983

Archives Regulations (Amendment)

Section 71 of the Archives Act 1983 (the Act) provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act.

The Act only applies to records of Commonwealth agencies which satisfy the definition of "authority of the Commonwealth" in subsection 3(1) of the Act. An inadvertent effect of the incorporation of the Australian and Overseas Telecommunications Corporation (AOTC) and the Commonwealth Funds Management Limited (CFM) was that neither company now falls within the definition of "authority of the Commonwealth", although their predecessor agencies had.

The Government has decided that there are sound reasons for AOTC and its subsidiary companies, and CFM and its subsidiary companies, to be subject to the provisions of the Act.

The definition of "authority of the Commonwealth" in subsection 3(1) of the Act includes:

"(c)       a prescribed company or association over which the Commonwealth is in a position to exercise control".

Regulations 2A and 2B amended the Archives Regulations (the principal Regulations) by prescribing AOTC and CFM for the purposes of paragraph (c) of the definition of "authority of the Commonwealth" in subsection 3(1) of the Act. This ensures that the records of AOTC, and its subsidiary companies, and CFM, and its subsidiary companies, are subject to the Act.

Materials of non-Commonwealth origin, when given to or bought by such organisations as the National Library of Australia, the Australian National Gallery, the Australian War Memorial, and the Museum of Australia, technically become Commonwealth records once owned by the collecting institution. The material in the collections of these institutions is, however, exempted from the Act under paragraph (e) of the definition of "exempt material" in subsection 3(1) of the Act, provided the material has not come to be included in the institution's collection in contravention of section 24 of the Act.

The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) is responsible for maintaining the National Maritime Collection, comprised of material owned by the ANMM. The collection of the ANMM is exempted from the Act in the same manner by which the collections of other national collecting institutions are exempted.

Regulation 2C amended the principal Regulations by exempting material of non-Commonwealth origin which is owned by the ANMM and which forms part of the Museum's National Maritime Collection, from the operation of the Act.

The regulations commenced on gazettal.