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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2010-10-26 Daily Xml
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STATE RECORDS ACT

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:52): I have a supplementary question, Mr President. I ask the minister:

does he therefore suggest that he is not taking any steps to ensure that official documents are maintained in good order;

does he have any views as to whether ministers have a responsibility to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to their agencies to ensure they meet their responsibilities under the State Records Act 1997; and

can he assure the council that no agency head or staff would be subject to disciplinary action if their failure to comply with the act was related to funding decisions or the relevant minister?

There was no mention of Burnside—no mention at all. There was no mention in the question at all; it is not relevant to the question at all.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (14:53): Well, you referred to it in the preamble.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: It relates to the issue of management.

The PRESIDENT: Order! If you want to answer your own question—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: I would like it answered; that's the point.

The PRESIDENT: The minister can answer the question as the minister sees fit.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Mr President, if that is irrelevant to his question, why did he put it in his preamble?

The Hon. S.G. Wade: I raised the issue of poor management, that's all.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Well, I think the answer that I gave to the question indicates that the government does take it seriously. If we have matters raised, as we did in that case, State Records does act appropriately to ensure that the act is upheld. As I said, we made recommendations in relation to that case, and I would expect the chief executives of government departments have responsibilities as chief executives under the act to ensure that—

The Hon. S.G. Wade: What about ministers' funding decisions? What if the ministers don't give them the funds to fulfil their responsibilities?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Well—

The PRESIDENT: Order! The honourable member should not respond to interjections because they are out of order and, by responding, he is encouraging people to interject.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: I am sorry, Mr President. I will ignore the interjections.

The Hon. S.G. Wade: Well, if you listen to the question, you might stay relevant.

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Mr President, I do not need the advice of the honourable member. In relation to the enforcement of acts, of course the CEs have responsibilities for it but, obviously, those CEs are responsible for the division of resources within their departments and one would expect that CEs will allocate the resources in accordance with their responsibilities.

If the honourable member is suggesting that, somehow or other, that means there should be a total blank cheque in relation to these sorts of areas of government, I am not sure that that necessarily is in the state's interests. Obviously, one would expect that CEs will be aware of the State Records Act and will act accordingly to preserve them. I recently visited the State Records offices, and they provide a very significant service. Fortunately, nowadays more and more records are available in electronic format, and clearly one of the things we need to do is ensure that taxpayers are not unduly overburdened with storage costs, and so on. If we can keep records in electronic format, hopefully that will save the very significant cost of storage. Unfortunately, to go back and put all past records on computer in electronic form would be prohibitive, but that is obviously one of the many issues State Records looks at.

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