EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Statutory Rules 1990 No.
Archives Regulations (Amendments)
(Issued under the authority of the Minister of State for Administrative Services)
Amendments to the Archives Act 1983 (the Act), which recently received Royal Assent (No. 80 of 1990), provide for charges for discretionary services in respect of Commonwealth institutions to be made and varied by determination of the Director-General of the Archives rather than by regulation. Charges for discretionary services provided to persons other than Commonwealth institutions continue to be made by regulation. However, the amendments to the Act rendered the current provisions in the Archives Regulations, governing charges for storage and related servicing of records, invalid.
Amended section 71 of the Act provides in part that the Governor-General may make regulations for the purposes of the Act, including regulations in relation to charges for the provision of prescribed discretionary services for persons other than Commonwealth institutions. The proposed amendments to the Archives Regulations (the Regulations) will ensure that, where appropriate, the charges for services to persons other than Commonwealth institutions may continue in force.
Regulation 1 is a formal provision.
Regulation 2 of the proposed Regulations omits a definition which is no longer required, and inserts one for ‘sentence’, which is a technical term in the context of the Regulations.
Regulation 3 omits regulation 8 (Charges), which is no longer appropriate following the amendments to the Act.
Regulation 4 inserts new regulation 10, which refers to the discretionary services which are prescribed for a person other than a Commonwealth institution, providing for services which may be provided under an arrangement between the Archives and such a person; and for particular services provided other than as part of such an arrangement, which are set out in a schedule.
Regulation 4 also inserts new regulation 11, which refers to the charges which are applicable in providing those services. It prescribes the charging rate if the services are provided under an arrangement, and refers to the charges set out in a schedule to the Regulations for services provided other than under an arrangement. Regulation 11 also grants the Director-General of the Australian Archives discretion to waive or reduce payments under certain circumstances, and includes a right of appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal from an adverse exercise of that discretion.
Regulations 5 and 6 omit Parts 2 and 3 of Schedule 1 from the Regulations. These are replaced by a new Part 2, which combines the material in the previous Parts 2 and 3, and sets out the charges applicable in respect of discretionary services provided to a person other than a Commonwealth institution (where these are provided other than under an arrangement between the Archives and that person).
The Minute recommends that Regulations be made in the form proposed.