24.
legal right to recovery[1]. Deeming was intended simply to ensure the coverage of records in categories where there might be doubt about the application of the definition[2].
62 Professor Neale also explained that in practice "[t]here are many papers of an undeniably official character which might not satisfy the property test which is used to identify Commonwealth records" and that "given modern copying technology, there may often be real doubt as to where ownership of a particular record resides"[3]. He explained that it was not the policy of the Government "to attempt to recover Commonwealth records … in the custody of persons or institutions other than Commonwealth institutions" and referred to the historical fact that no legal recovery action had ever been attempted[4].
63 Against that background, the practical difficulty which had confronted the Australian Archives in the past and which would continue to confront the Archives in the future arose from the fact that there was a "grey area between personal and official". The problem was that "some" former "Ministers and officials" regarded as "personal papers" what "others" would call "official papers" and what "others" would call "Commonwealth records in terms of the Bill". Professor Neale was able to "say categorically that in many collections of personal papers there exist official government files"[5].
64 Professor Neale explained that the purpose of the proposed s 5(2)(f) was to enable the Archives to "collect certain material without regard for ownership" so as "to avoid the need to establish ownership before taking custody of official
- ↑ See eg Australia, Senate, Standing Committee on Education and the Arts (Reference: Archives Bill) 1978–79, Official Hansard Transcript of Evidence (1979) at 21, 169–171, 386–387.
- ↑ Australia, Senate, Standing Committee on Education and the Arts (Reference: Archives Bill) 1978–79, Official Hansard Transcript of Evidence (1979) at 169.
- ↑ Australia, Senate, Standing Committee on Education and the Arts (Reference: Archives Bill) 1978–79, Official Hansard Transcript of Evidence (1979) at 19.
- ↑ Australia, Senate, Standing Committee on Education and the Arts (Reference: Archives Bill) 1978–79, Official Hansard Transcript of Evidence (1979) at 21.
- ↑ Australia, Senate, Standing Committee on Education and the Arts (Reference: Archives Bill) 1978–79, Official Hansard Transcript of Evidence (1979) at 42–43.
