Victoria: The Keep-It-All State? The Impact on Archives of the Crimes (Document Destruction) Act 2006 and the Evidence (Document Unavailability) Act 2006

摘要

In 2006, Victoria became the first state in Australia to enact laws specifically criminalizing document destruction in situations where no legal proceedings had yet commenced. Included in the Crimes (Document Destruction) Act and its supporting adjunct, the Evidence (Document Unavailability) Act, are offences and penalties for those who destroy evidence. The new legislation sent an immediate and profound wave of unease throughout Victoria's public and private sectors: Did these laws mean that organizations could no longer destroy any record because it may one day be needed in discovery for a case not yet launched or even contemplated? Agencies turned to the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), the state archival authority, for advice and clarification on what the Acts meant for recordkeeping and archives. This article reviews the issues that PROV considered in developing a response to the two Acts, and more broadly, how open-ended directions to "keep in case" can pose both intellectual and practical challenges for records managers and archivists alike.