(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.