New Zealand Archivist Vol XV No 3 September/Spring 2004 ISSN 0114-7676 Public Records Bill introduced into Parliament Rosemary Collier Archives New Zealand has announced that the Public Records Bill was introduced into Parliament on 1 September, and the first reading took place 011 Thursday, 16 September. Let us hope that this time the unborn child reaches Further information full-term, and is not aborted while it is still in gestation. Copies of the Bill are available from Bennetts NZSA welcomes the introduction, and hopes the Bill Bookshops. Electronic copies are also available from will have a speedy and uncontroversial passage into the Knowledge Basket at http: / /www.knowledge- law, with sufficient teeth in it to see it implemented basket, co.nz / gpprint / docs / welcome.html and observed. Information will be available also from the The statement from Archives New Zealand, dated forthcoming issue of Archives New Zealand's 6 September 2004, goes on to say: newsletter, Outreach Kia whakakautoro, and from the website, http://www.archives.govt.nz/about/ Significant policy changes legislation.html There have been two significant policy changes since December, which are: Statement of Intent - A deferral of the transfer of sensitive information All of this was foreshadowed in the April 2004 has been incorporated in the Bill. This means Statement of Intent. Dianne Macaskill's Introduction that records that contain sensitive information said, under the heading "Public Records Bill": "During that would be likely to be prejudicial to the the year the Public Records Bill has made substantial security or defence of New Zealand, or to the progress. The policy and legislative process is a entrusting of information to the Government of complex exercise, shifting the focus of archives New Zealand on a confidential basis, or to the legislation from being exclusively concerned with maintenance of the law, can be deferred from preservation of archives, to a whole-of-govemment transfer to the Chief Archivist. This continues approach. The primary reason for new legislation is the provision enabling the deferral of sensitive that, given technological and administrative changes information within the Archives Act. Such a over the last 30 years, different interventions are now deferral is a serious undertaking and requires the needed. This is to provide the archives for future responsible Minister of the government agency generations and, more immediately, to ensure reliable to certify that the records contain sensitive and authentic records exist at all." information of the type described above after In the "Capability" section of the statement, under consulting with the Minister responsible for "Strengthening of national leadership role and support Archives New Zealand. of community archives" there is the sentence: "The - The second change is to reflect the unique records Public Records Bill will confirm a leadership role for created by the five-yearly Census. Archives New Zealand in archives, and recordkeeping These records may not be destroyed and are generally, within New Zealand." Further on, under transferred to the Chief Archivist after a period "Implementing the Public Records Bill" it is stated: of 100 years for permanent safekeeping. The "Effective implementation of the Public Records Government Statistician provides access to this Bill will require additional skill sets within Archives information in accordance with the Statistics Act. New Zealand. A proposed new function is a regular The Statistics Act is being amended to ensure audit of recordkeeping in public offices." Census information is available for researchers Inter alia, the Statement of Intent also says, regarding to use for statistical purposes, such as research the Government Locator Archival Documentation and into demographic or economic trends after the Information System (GLADIS) "It is expected that the records are transferred to the Chief Archivist. system will be made available in our reading rooms during the year." Select Committee Following its first reading, the Bill will be referred to a Select Committee for consideration. Parliamentary Debate on first reading of the Mr Peters endorsed Ms Te Heuheu's comment Public Records Bill on what he called "a properly constructed purpose Seven MPs spoke in the debate. First was the Hon. clause about the Treaty of Waitangi, at long last. New Marian Hobbs, Minister responsible for Archives New Zealand First has called for this over the years and has Zealand, who moved that the Bill be read a first time. talked about the Treaty of Waitangi clause... We have It is disturbing to read that following these worked through the functions and duties which are part introductory remarks by Ms Hobbs, the Speaker had of this Bill and it seems to us to be eminently sensible, to say: "Order. Please keep...leave quietly." Does straightforward..." this mean that numbers of MPs thought "This isn't Ian Ewen-Street, speaking on behalf of Keith Locke interesting; I'm going"? for the Greens, and Ms Te Heuheu both referred to the Ms Hobbs introduced the first reading of the Bill Bill setting Archives New Zealand up as a Crown entity, by explaining that "public records provide evidence but this is not the case; it is clearly a "department of of government activities and are a key component State" in the definition of "Archives New Zealand" on of public accountability." She said that "[archives] page 4, and elsewhere. enhance democracy by informing citizens about Mr Ewen-Street, in supporting the Bill, thought issues, decision-making processes and results. They nevertheless that it gave "too much leeway to ministers also contribute to who we are as a nation by recording to withhold documents from the Archives". He alluded people's experiences with government." to access to archives, and said that "researchers get She went on to note the new challenges from very frustrated when key materials are either not in electronic records and the erosion of former record­ the Archives or they are shut out by restrictive access keeping practices. She said these matters would be rules. He applauded the mandatory transfer of public addressed by new record-keeping requirements for records after 25 years, but was concerned about the public offices and local authorities. Archives "enhance Minister's power to defer it. He thought there was New Zealanders' sense of national identity by enabling little that would prejudice security 25 years after the us to piece together the ever-changing story of who we fact, other than "the identities of still undercover are and how we got here" Ms Hobbs continued. government operatives". The Minister stressed the independence of the He recalled that 25 years before, "the cold war was Chief Archivist on matters of disposal of records, still raging and Muldoon was still in power". His i.e. independence from the Minister. Nevertheless, concern was that material may be restricted "not for the Archives Council is granted the power to advise real security reasons, but to protect their departments the Minister on this matter, which could leave room from embarrassment." for partisan views to be proposed, and possibly, if He then went on to describe a letter he had obtained politically expedient, to be granted. After commending under the Official Information Act, written by a Foreign the Bill to the House, Ms Hobbs was followed by the Affairs employee "on behalf of the Secretary of Foreign Hon. Georgina Te Heuheu, National. Affairs dated July 28, 1975." This letter reported on Ms Te Heuheu stated that National would support a meeting the writer had had with the then Fretilin the Bill going to Select Committee "but we certainly Secretary-General, Jose Ramos-Horta, who later became want to have a good look at it when it's there." the Foreign Minister of East Timor after independence. She commended the fact that the clause concerning The purport was that Horta was lied to about the the Treaty of Waitangi was specific to the purposes of intentions of the Indonesian government to make the Bill, and not a generic clause which "could mean armed intervention in East Timor. Four months later nothing at all". Ms Te Heuheu also found it of interest the Indonesians did that very thing. that there was provision for iwi-based or hapu- Mr Ewen-Street used this example to show that the based repositories in which public archives could be agony of violence and loss of life in East Timor could deposited. Finally, Ms Te Heuheu expressed concern have been avoided if the New Zealand and Australian that there may be too much restriction on access in Governments had not collaborated with Indonesia, but the interests of privacy: "There may be in this Bill an had used their influence on behalf of East Timor. attempt to try and restrict access to the point where The fact that Mr Ewen-Street had to ask for these privacy issues unnecessarily impinge upon legitimate documents under the Official Information Act showed archival research." that they had not been declassified and deposited at Next was Jim Peters of New Zealand First. He Archives New Zealand. referred to the fact that it was 20 years before that He went on: "...where this bill is dangerous...in "such a Bill was in the House and it may be that this that one of the grounds for a minister not transferring Bill has got a similar fate, because I'm told that 20 years documents is that doing so might 'prejudice international ago in this House, in 1984, this very matter was being relations of the government of New Zealand'. I argue discussed and someone called a general election and that making public documents .. .on our disastrous past fate intervened and 20 years later it's back here with us. relations with the Indonesian dictatorship [Suharto] So I'm ..