Terms used
3 Terms used
In this Act —
authorised applicant, in relation to an application to the Commission, means a person authorised under section 4 to make the application;
Commission means the State Records Commission established by section 57;
control, in relation to a record, means the responsibility for keeping it but does not include the responsibility for creating it;
destroy, in relation to a record, means to deal with the record —
so that any or all of the information recorded or stored on it is obliterated or rendered illegible or irrecoverable; or
so that it can not convey a meaning in a visible, audible or recoverable form;
Director means the Director of State Records referred to in section 70;
exempt record means a record —
control of which is given by a State organisation to another person in the course of the organisation’s operations;
that is part of publicly available library material held by a State organisation for reference purposes;
that was not created by a State organisation and that is part of the collection of a State collecting institution;
FOI Act means the Freedom of Information Act 1992;
government organisation means an organisation in Schedule 1 but does not include an organisation in Schedule 2;
government organisation employee means —
a person who, whether or not an employee, alone or with others governs, controls or manages a government organisation; or
a person who, under the Public Sector Management Act 1994, is a public service officer of a government organisation; or
a person who is engaged by a government organisation, whether under a contract for services or otherwise,
and includes, in the case of a government organisation referred to in item 5 or 6 of Schedule 1, a ministerial officer (as defined in the Public Sector Management Act 1994) assisting the organisation;
government record means a record created or received by —
a government organisation; or
a government organisation employee in the course of the employee’s work for the organisation,
but does not include an exempt record;
keep, in relation to a record, has the meaning affected by subsection (2);
parliamentary department means a department that is deemed to have been constituted in relation to the administration of Parliament for the purposes of the Financial Management Act 2006 by regulations made for the purposes of section 5(1) of that Act;
parliamentary record means a record created or received by —
a parliamentary department; or
a person in the course of the person’s work for the department, whether the person is employed under a contract of service or is engaged under a contract for services or otherwise,
but does not include an exempt record;
record means any record of information however recorded and includes —
any thing on which there is writing or Braille; and
a map, plan, diagram or graph; and
a drawing, pictorial or graphic work, or photograph; and
any thing on which there are figures, marks, perforations, or symbols, having a meaning for persons qualified to interpret them; and
anything from which images, sounds or writings can be reproduced with or without the aid of anything else; and
any thing on which information has been stored or recorded, either mechanically, magnetically, or electronically;
record keeping plan means —
in relation to a parliamentary department, the record keeping plan approved in respect of the department under Part 2, as the plan is amended from time to time under that Part;
in relation to a government organisation, the record keeping plan approved in respect of the organisation under Part 3, as the plan is amended from time to time under that Part;
relevant Minister, in relation to a Schedule 3 organisation, means the Minister to whom the administration of the Act under which the organisation is established or continued is for the time being committed by the Governor;
reproduce, in relation to a record, has the meaning affected by subsection (3);
restricted access archive means a State archive that is a government record and to which access is restricted until it is of a certain age;
retention period, in relation to a record, means the period for which the record must be kept before it may be destroyed;
Schedule 3 organisation means a government organisation in Schedule 3;
State archive means a State record that is to be retained permanently;
State archives collection means the collection of State archives referred to in section 35;
State collecting institution means —
the Art Gallery of Western Australia preserved and continued by the Art Gallery Act 1959; and
the State Reference Library (as defined in the Library Board of Western Australia Act 1951); and
the Western Australian Museum constituted under the Museum Act 1969;
State organisation means —
a parliamentary department; or
a government organisation;
State record means —
a parliamentary record; or
a government record;
State Records Office means the entity referred to in section 72;
successor, in relation to a government organisation that is abolished or that ceases to be a government organisation, means the government organisation (if any) that takes over that organisation’s functions;
unauthorised possession, in relation to a government record, means possession that is not authorised by any of the following —
the record keeping plan of the government organisation that last had possession of, or that has the control of, the record;
the government organisation that last had possession of, or that has the control of, the record;
the archives keeping plan;
the Director;
a written law;
an order or determination of a court or tribunal.
In this Act a reference to keeping records or record keeping includes a reference —
to creating, maintaining, indexing, organising, storing, preserving, securing, retaining and managing records; and
to maintaining, preserving, securing and retaining the means by which any information on a record can be recovered.
In this Act a reference to reproducing a record in another form includes a reference to reproducing the information in the record by another means.
For example: a paper record could be reproduced in the form of a microfilm or it could be scanned and the information in it digitised for reproduction by means of a computer.
In this Act a State organisation’s State records are those records that the organisation has created or received or taken control of.
In this Act a reference to transferring a record to another person includes a reference to transferring the means of recovering the record’s information to the person.
In this Act the age of a record is to be determined from the date when it first became a State record.
Notes and examples in this Act are provided to assist understanding and do not form part of the Act.
[Section 3 amended: No. 77 of 2006 Sch. 1 cl. 159(1).]
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