59.
164 GORDON J. The Official Secretary to the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia deposited a package with the Australian Archives, as it then was, on 26 August 1978. That package contained letters and telegrams, and attachments such as newspaper clippings, between the Right Honourable Sir John Kerr, who held the office of Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia from 11 July 1974 to 8 December 1977, and Her Majesty The Queen.
165 The question in this case is whether each item of correspondence in that package is a "Commonwealth record" within the meaning of the Archives Act 1983 (Cth) and subject to the access regime in Div 3 of Pt V of that Act or merely "other material"[1]. I agree with the plurality that the answer to that question is that each item of correspondence in that package is a "Commonwealth record". I write separately primarily to address the construction of key provisions of the Archives Act.
Archives Act
166 The package was deposited with the Australian Archives prior to the commencement of the Archives Act. Upon commencement of that Act[2], the contents of the package became "records" which formed part of the "archival resources of the Commonwealth", and which the Australian Archives had the function of conserving and preserving[3]. The "archival resources of the Commonwealth" consist of such "Commonwealth records" and "other material" as are "of national significance or public interest" and "relate to", among other things, "the history or government of Australia"[4].
Record
167 A "record" is broadly defined to include a document, or an object, in any form that is, or has been, kept by reason of "any information or matter that it contains or that can be obtained from it" or "its connection with any event, person,
- ↑ See Archives Act, s 3(2).
- ↑ The complete text of the relevant provisions of the Archives Act is set out in the reasons of Kiefel CJ, Bell, Gageler and Keane JJ at [35]–[53]. It is unnecessary to repeat it except to the extent necessary to explain these reasons.
- ↑ Archives Act, ss 3(2), 5(2)(a). The Australian Archives was created by s 5(1) of the Archives Act. It was later renamed the National Archives of Australia: Census Information Legislation Amendment Act 2000 (Cth), Sch 2.
- ↑ Archives Act, s 3(2)(a).
