Review of the State Records Act 1998

Background to the review

The State Records Act 1998 was assented to on 2 June 1998 and commenced on 1 January 1999, with the exception of Part 4, which commenced in July 1999. [1]

s.82 of the State Records Act 1998 provides that:

- the Minister is to review this Act to determine whether the policy objectives of the Act remain valid and whether the terms of the Act remain appropriate for securing those objectives

- the review is to be undertaken as soon as possible after the period of 5 years from the date of assest, and

- a report of the outcome of the review to be tabled in each House of Parliament within 12 months after the end of the period of 5 years.

It is now 5 years since the Act received assent. State Records will conduct the review and report on its outcomes for submission to the Premier, as Minister for the Arts.

Consultation process

Following discussion with the Board of State Records, State Records staff and members of the Community and Public Sector Advisory Committees, an issues paper was developed to facilitate public consultation. Submissions were invited and public meetings held in Sydney and regional centres. Though the submission period has closed, the issues paper (pdf, 85kb) is still available for download. This paper contains an outline of the review process, the purpose and operation of the Act, and a discussion of some key issues. However, the paper was not intended to be exhaustive. Additional issues raised by submissions were also considered in the review process.

Report on the review

Following the consultation process, a review report (pdf, 40kb) was prepared and tabled in Parliament, making recommendations for changes to the Act.

Recommendations included:

• extending the limitation period on prosecutions for unauthorised disposal of State Records from the current 6-month period to up to 2 years
• transferring the guidelines for normal administrative practice in Schedule 1 of the Act to the regulation
• making explicit the presumption in favour of making records more than 30 years old open to public access
• that a State record that is more than 30 years old, and not the subject of an access direction, is open to public access within 14 days (currently 1 month) of an initial application to access the record unless a decision is made by a public office to give a Closed to Public Access direction within this time
• introducing an internal review mechanism for access directions that mirrors the review mechanism in section 28(4) for still in use determinations
• enabling private records to be be excluded from the operation of the Act without exempting State records that should remain covered, and
• making a small number of minor amendments to clarify certain existing provisions and facilitate operations.

State Records Amendment Bill 2004

In accordance with the report on the review, a Bill was prepared to amend the State Records Act. The text of this bill, and information on its progress, is available on the Parliament of New South Wales' website. The text of the second reading speech can be found in Hansard for Friday 22nd September.

For more information

If you have any questions about the review, please contact

Executive Officer
State Records NSW
PO Box 516 Kingswood NSW 2747
Telephone: 02 8247 8650 | Facsimile: 02 8247 8626
Email: jim.sinclair@records.nsw.gov.au

[1] The State Records Regulation 1999 deferred the application of the Act to local government, the universities and the public hospital system until 1 January 2000, with the exception of Part 3 (protection of State records) and Part 5 (recovery of estrays).This was to enable these sectors, which have not previously been subject to records legislation, to prepare for their responsibilities under the new Act.