STATE RECORDS ACT 1997 - SECT 3

STATE RECORDS ACT 1997 - SECT 3

3—Interpretation

        (1)         In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears—

"agency" means—

            (a)         the Governor; or

            (b)         a Minister of the Crown; or

            (c)         a court or tribunal; or

            (d)         a person who holds an office established by an Act; or

            (e)         an incorporated or unincorporated body—

                  (i)         established for a public purpose by or under an Act; or

                  (ii)         established or subject to control or direction by the Governor, a Minister of the Crown or any instrumentality or agency of the Crown; or

            (f)         a department or other administrative unit of the public service; or

            (g)         the police force; or

            (h)         a municipal or district council; or

                  (i)         a person or body declared by the regulations to be an agency,

and includes a former agency and an agency that ceased to exist before the commencement of this Act, but does not include—

            (j)         a House of Parliament or a committee of the Parliament or a House of Parliament; and

            (k)         a present or former officer of a House of Parliament; and

            (l)         a present or former member of a House of Parliament (other than a Minister in respect of records made or received in his or her capacity as a Minister); and

            (m)         a present or former member of the staff of a House of Parliament or the joint parliamentary service;

"Council" means the State Records Council established under Part 4;

"dispose of" an official record means—

            (a)         destroy or abandon the record; or

            (b)         carry out an act or process as a result of which it is no longer possible or reasonably practicable to reproduce the whole or a part of the information contained in the record; or

            (c)         transfer or deliver ownership or possession of or sell the record, or purport to do so,

but does not include to transfer or deliver the record to State Records or between one agency and another;

"Manager" means the Manager of State Records;

"official record" means a record made or received by an agency in the conduct of its business, but does not include—

            (a)         a record made or received by an agency for delivery or transmission to another person or body (other than an agency) and so delivered or transmitted; or

            (b)         a record made by an agency as a draft only and not for further use or reference; or

            (c)         a record received into or made for the collection of a library, museum or art gallery and not otherwise associated with the business of the agency; or

            (d)         a Commonwealth record as defined by the Archives Act 1983 of the Commonwealth, as amended from time to time, or an Act of the Commonwealth enacted in substitution for that Act; or

            (e)         a record that has been transferred to the Commonwealth;

"record" means—

            (a)         written, graphic or pictorial matter; or

            (b)         a disk, tape, film or other object that contains information or from which information may be reproduced (with or without the aid of another object or device);

"record management" includes the manner in which records are created;

"State Records" means the office of State Records established under Part 3.

        (2)         For the purposes of this Act, a reference to a record includes a reference to—

            (a)         a part of a record; and

            (b)         a copy of a record; and

            (c)         an object or matter that—

                  (i)         is attached or annexed to a record; or

                  (ii)         is reasonably required in order to interpret, explain or comprehend a record; or

                  (iii)         usually accompanies, or comprises a part of, a record,

but does not include a reference to an object or device used to produce or record a record, or used to reproduce information contained in a record.

        (3)         For the purposes of this Act, a reference to the agency responsible for an official record in the custody of State Records is a reference to—

            (a)         the agency from which the record was received into the custody of State Records; or

            (b)         if that agency has ceased to exist, the agency (if any) that has succeeded to the functions of that former agency; or

            (c)         if that agency has ceased to exist and no other agency has succeeded to the functions of that former agency—

                  (i)         the agency (if any) nominated by the Minister under the Freedom of Information Act 1991 as the agency on which the responsibilities of the former agency under that Act will devolve; or

                  (ii)         in the absence of such a nomination, State Records.

        (4)         For the purposes of this Act, a record will be taken to have come into existence on 31 December of the year in which it came into existence.