CATCHWORDS
Hocking v Director-General of the National Archives of Australia
Administrative law (Cth) – Judicial review – Archives – Access to records – Where Governor-General engaged in correspondence with Her Majesty the Queen – Where correspondence described as personal and confidential – Where Official Secretary to Governor-General kept correspondence and made arrangement to deposit correspondence with predecessor organisation to National Archives of Australia ("Archives") – Where correspondence deposited by Official Secretary on instructions of former Governor-General after his retirement – Where Archives Act 1983 (Cth) subsequently enacted – Where s 31 of Archives Act provides that Commonwealth records within care of Archives must be made available for public access when within "open access period" – Where s 3(1) defines "Commonwealth record" as including "record that is the property of the Commonwealth or of a Commonwealth institution" – Where "Commonwealth institution" defined as including "the official establishment of the Governor-General" – Whether correspondence property of Commonwealth or of official establishment of Governor-General – Whether "property" within context of Archives Act connoted relationship involving holding of rights corresponding to ownership or possession at common law or connoted existence of legally endorsed concentration of power to control custody of record.
Words and phrases – "administration", "archival resources of the Commonwealth", "Archives", "body politic", "care and management", "Commonwealth institution", "Commonwealth record", "comprehensive expression", "convention", "correspondence", "created or received officially and kept institutionally", "Crown in right of the Commonwealth", "custody", "functional unit of government", "Governor-General", "kept by reason of", "lawful power of control", "legally endorsed concentration of power", "management", "official establishment of the Governor-General", "Official Secretary", "ownership", "personal and confidential", "personal records", "possession", "private and confidential", "property", "property of the Commonwealth or of a Commonwealth institution", "public access", "record", "right to exclude others", "the Commonwealth".
Constitution – covering cll 3, 4, s 2, Ch II.
Archives Act 1983 (Cth) – ss 2A, 3, 3C, 5, 6, 62, 64, 70, Pt V.
Governor-General Act 1974 (Cth), s 6.
