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Ch17 Documents / DISTRIBUTION AND PRINTING OF DOCUMENTS / Custody and availability of original documents



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House of Representatives                                Ch 17                                                 p 595

 

Documents / DISTRIBUTION AND PRINTING OF DOCUMENTS

 

Custody and availability of original documents

Under the direction of the Speaker, the Clerk has custody of all documents presented to the House. 1 All documents presented to the House are considered to be public and, by arrangement, may be inspected at the offices of the House.

Although documents held by the House are Commonwealth records for the purposes of the Archives Act, 2 the requirements of the Act relating to the disposal of and access to such records do not apply unless provided for by regulation. 3 The relevant regulations acknowledge the position of the Parliament within the Commonwealth, the special recognition and treatment that should be given to particular parliamentary records, and the different powers and functions of the Parliament and the Executive Government. 4 The regulations recognise Parliament’s control over the records of proceedings of the Houses, presented documents and certain committee documents (‘class A records’). Other records, for example, administrative records of the parliamentary departments (‘class B records’) are subject to the provisions of the Archives Act applying to similar records of executive departments.

In 1980 the House agreed to a resolution delegating to the Speaker the authority to release for public scrutiny committee records (other than in camera or confidential evidence) which have been in the custody of the House for at least 10 years. Similar authority was given to the Speaker and the President in respect of joint committee records. 5 A further resolution in 1984 permits in camera evidence to be disclosed after 30 years, if in the Speaker’s opinion, disclosure is appropriate. 6

See also ‘Publication of evidence’ in the Chapter on ‘Parliamentary committees’ .



S.O. 28.



Archives Act 1983 , s. 3.



Archives Act 1983 , ss. 18, 20.



Archives (Records of Parliament) Regulations 1995, s. 2 (SR 91 of 1995).



VP 1978-80/1539-40; H.R. Deb. (22.5.80) 3133-4.



VP 1983-84/988-9.