30.
is to be taken to be a Commonwealth record. Records held by or on behalf of a House of the Parliament include the Journals of the Senate and the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives together with documents tabled in, or presented to or created by committees of, the Senate and the House of Representatives[1]. Records of the Senate are typically held in the custody of the Clerk of the Senate[2] and records of the House of Representatives are typically held in the custody of the Clerk of the House of Representatives under the direction of the Speaker of the House of Representatives[3].
79 Holders of constitutional and statutory offices are therefore not "the Commonwealth" for the purposes of the Archives Act merely by reason of holding office and acting in the discharge of the functions of office. Amongst the holders of constitutional offices who are not within that statutory conception of "the Commonwealth" are notably Ministers, Senators, members of the House of Representatives and Justices of the High Court and judges of the other courts created by Commonwealth Parliament. Amongst them also is the Governor-General.
80 Moreover, holders of such constitutional offices are not automatically within the statutory conception of a "Commonwealth institution". A Minister who is a member of the Federal Executive Council is not "the Executive Council"; a Senator is not "the Senate"; a member of the House of Representatives is not "the House of Representatives"; a Justice of the High Court or a judge of another court created by Commonwealth Parliament is not "a Federal court". In the same way, the Governor-General is not "the official establishment of the Governor-General". Unless specifically prescribed by a regulation made for the purpose of para (b) of the definition of "authority of the Commonwealth", none of those office holders is a "Commonwealth institution".
81 Exclusion of constitutional office holders from the statutory conception of the Commonwealth, and in the absence of regulation also from the statutory conception of a Commonwealth institution, is comprehensible as a matter of legislative design when regard is had to the relationship between constitutional office holders and components of the definition of a "Commonwealth institution". The relevant components are those which operate to bring within the statutory conception of a Commonwealth institution functional units of government which,
