The federal government has sidelined a proposal to expand the National Archives of Australia but has agreed to reforms that could speed up access to records at the agency.
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In a response to an expert review of the agency on Thursday the government said it would review laws for the archives and consider changes improving access to records.
But it stopped short of supporting a recommended expansion of the archives that would grow its staffing by transferring record-keeping employees to the agency from other parts of the public service.
Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General, Amanda Stoker, released the government's response to the major review on Thursday and flagged a reform package to modernise the archives.
The government accepted all 20 recommendations - either in full or in principle - from the review by former Finance Department secretary David Tune.
"Some of those are ones we've already implemented, others will take some time to be able to reach fruition," Senator Stoker said.
"But they reflect the fact that in the 60 years since the National Archives was founded, our society's changed a lot, the threat landscape for an agency like the archives has changed a lot, and the technologies that it uses are wildly different from that that was contemplated at its establishment," she said.
The government will consider changing laws for the archives to let it charge for more of its services providing access to Commonwealth records.
The agency is also building a digital archives system, and the government would consider laws improving the agency's national security measures, Senator Stoker said.
"The Archives Act at present sets out the kinds of documents that are stored and the kinds of documents that can be accessed, but there's nothing in it to stop the archives from having to comply with a request from a person based in another country, acting we believe at the insistence of a foreign power and requesting huge swathes of information for what we believe are effectively mass data surveillance projects," she said.
"We need to make sure that we are using the best information we have about the digital world and cyber security to make sure that we are giving the archives the powers and the tools as well as the technology they need to keep our records safe but also to make sure they're used in a way that aligns with the interests of Australians."
However, several major changes proposed in the Tune Review have either been deferred or set aside.
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The government will not embark on a recommended 600-staff-member expansion of the archives, nor changes that would centralise the public service's record-keeping within the agency.
It said the proposal would require work and transfers of resources that could take a significant period of time, and many years before benefits could be realised.
"Furthermore, there is a need to develop the capability and technology of the National Archives in preparation for the enormity of this role," the government's response said.
The government would in the short to medium term promote better collaboration and training on record keeping and archiving by creating a committee of key officers from across the public service.
"Doing so will deliver the same outcome of achieving greater efficiencies and improved information management, record keeping and archiving," the government response said.
If the committee did not achieve this, the government was open to a potential second stage of reform that would centralise record keeping and grow staffing at the archives.
The government also agreed in principle to a recommendation to speed up applications for records but said this would have to protect against an inappropriate releases of classified and highly sensitive records.
The archives has started building new digital archives and moved its operations to a new system, and has received government funding to securely transfer, preserve and provide access to digital records.
In response to a recommended $167m overhaul of the agency's IT systems, the government said it would be subject to a final business case and considered as part of future budget processes, if the overhaul was still required.
The government has given the archives $67.7 million to save at-risk records after warnings from the Tune Review that precious historical items would become obsolete. It will also fund staffing to reduce backlogs of requests to access records, and to build the agency's new digital archive system.