Archives Act 1983

Where the Archives is required by this Part to cause a record to be made available for public access, any person is, subject to this Part, entitled to access to the record.

Access to a record may be given to a person in one or more of the following forms:

a reasonable opportunity to inspect the record;

on payment of a charge determined in accordance with the regulations, provision to the person of a copy of the record;

in the case of a record from which information or matter can be produced or made available in a particular form by means of a computer, projector or other equipment, provision, on payment of a charge determined in accordance with the regulations, of access to that information or matter by the use of that equipment;

in the case of a record by which words are recorded in a manner in which they are capable of being reproduced in the form of sound or in which words are contained in the form of shorthand writing or in codified form, provision, on payment of a charge determined in accordance with the regulations, of a written transcript of the words recorded or contained in the record.

Subject to subsection (4), where a person has applied for access in a particular form, access shall be given in that form.

Where the giving of access under this Part in the form requested by the person in his or her application for access:

would interfere unreasonably with the operations of the Archives or of another Commonwealth institution that has the custody of the record;

would not, having regard to the physical nature of the record, be appropriate;

would be detrimental to the preservation of the record; or

would, but for this Act, involve an infringement of copyright (other than copyright owned by the Commonwealth, a Commonwealth institution, a State, the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory) subsisting in matter contained in the record, being matter that does not relate to the affairs of a Commonwealth institution;

The reference in subsection (4) to copyright owned by a Commonwealth institution shall not be taken to extend to copyright owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation or the Special Broadcasting Service Corporation in a work or other subject matter forming part of its program material.