State Records Act 1998 (NSW)

State Records Act 1998 No 17

An Act to make provision for the creation, management and protection of the records of public offices of the State and to provide for public access to those records, to establish the State Archives and Records Authority; and for other purposes.

Part 1 Preliminary

1 Name of Act This Act is the State Records Act 1998.

2 Commencement This Act commences on a day or days to be appointed by proclamation.

3 Definitions (1) In this Act— access direction means a CPA direction or OPA direction. access provider—see section 60(1). Authority means the State Records Authority NSW constituted by this Act. Board means the Board of the Authority established by this Act. control has its meaning affected by section 6. CPA direction means a direction that a record is closed to public access under this Act. Director means the person employed in the Public Service as the Executive Director of the Authority. dispose of means dispose of by destruction or by any other means. exercise a function includes perform a duty. function includes a power, authority and duty. OPA direction means a direction that a record is open to public access under this Act. open access period (see section 50). person includes a public office and a body (whether or not incorporated). public office— (a) means each of the following— (i) a department, office, commission, board, corporation, agency, service or instrumentality exercising a function of a branch of the Government of the State, (ii) a body, whether incorporated or not, established for a public purpose, (iii) a council, county council or joint organisation under the Local Government Act 1993, (iv) the Cabinet and the Executive Council, (v) the office and official establishment of the Governor, (vi) a House of Parliament, (vii) a court or tribunal, (viii) a State collecting institution, (ix) a Royal Commission or Commission of Inquiry, (x) a State owned corporation, (xi) the holder of an office under the Crown, (xii) a political office holder, other than the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, within the meaning of the Members of Parliament Staff Act 2013, (xiii) a body, office or institution, whether or not it is a public office under another subparagraph of this paragraph, that exercises a public function and is declared by the regulations to be a public office for the purposes of this Act, (b) but does not include— (i) the Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer established under the Workers Compensation Act 1987, or (ii) a justice of the peace within the meaning of the Justices of the Peace Act 2002, or (iii) another individual or a private sector entity, except to the extent that section 8 applies. record means any document or other source of information compiled, recorded or stored in written form or on film, or by electronic process, or in any other manner or by any other means. State archive means a State record that Museums of History NSW has control of under this Act. State collecting institution means each of the following— (a) Art Gallery of New South Wales Trust, (b) Australian Museum Trust, (c) Museums of History NSW, (d) Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, (e) National Parks and Wildlife Service, (f) Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, (g) Library Council of New South Wales (in respect of the State Library of New South Wales), (h) Sydney Opera House Trust, (i) Zoological Parks Board, (j) any public office that is prescribed by the regulations as a State collecting institution (a prescribed State collecting institution).