Anonymous Patron writes “News From New Zealand where Civil Service chiefs will get the power to keep many government files secret forever under a new bill covering Archives New Zealand.
Critics say the bill leaves ample scope for department bosses to bar public access to classes of records and archives they can look at at present.
Former chief archivist Kathryn Patterson says she found heads of departments sought restrictions as the rule, not the exception, in her time and wants the bill tightened.”
I’m not tooooo worried about this
I think the article is a bit of an over-reaction. I’ve read the proposed Bill, and I don’t think it’s as bad as the archivist makes out. My interpretation of it, in fact, was that it tightened up the rules that applied to government agencies, placing more obligation on them to create and maintain records. (The “create” part is new, if I understand correctly – the old Archives Act 1957 merely said ‘keep your files in good condition then send them off to the National Archives’). And the new rules explicitly cover email etc.
Also worth noting that the Official Information Act still applies to this stuff, so researchers will still be able to access it, a point that doesn’t get much coverage in the article.