57.
the Queen, is exempt from the provisions of the legislation. Any official material is subject to provisions covering disposal, access and storage." (emphasis added)
160 Finally, the appellant relied as well upon the fact, apparent from evidence at trial, that some of Sir John's correspondence with the Monarch was "drafted with the Official Secretary's input". That evidence consisted of the following paragraph from a personal and confidential letter of 24 March 1981 from Sir John to Mr Smith:
"I appreciate very much all that you have done for me, including, of course, your attention to the 'Palace correspondence'. As to the latter, I have always been very glad that I introduced the system during my period of the Official Secretary participating in the preparation of that correspondence. Your checking of it before despatch and suggestions which you made from time to time as to its contents were very valuable to me, as were your comments on the replies from the Palace."
According to the appellant, the fact that the Official Secretary was involved in the composition of some of the Palace correspondence was a strong indicator that the correspondence was correspondence of the official establishment of the Governor-General.
161 That contention should also be rejected. The fact that Sir John involved his Official Secretary in correspondence with the Monarch does not suggest that the correspondence so created was anything other than a personal communication by Sir John, sent, copied and kept in accordance with the established understanding that it would remain confidential, and thus subject to the personal control of the Governor-General. It shows no more than that Sir John sufficiently valued the ability of the Official Secretary as to seek his assistance in composing the personal correspondence with the Palace.
Conclusion
162 For the foregoing reasons, nothing in the evidence gives reason to doubt that Sir John exercised control over his personal communications with the Monarch from the moment that they were written or received to the moment of their deposit with the Archives. At times, that control was exercised through Mr Smith, who, as Sir John's agent, had custody of the correspondence until that custody was transferred to the Archives. In the absence of contrary evidence, it follows that the correspondence was in Sir John's lawful possession at all relevant times. And, as the plurality's reasons indicate[1], Sir John's powers over the correspondence are not to be attributed to the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth
- ↑ See reasons of Kiefel CJ, Bell, Gageler and Keane JJ at [106].
