National Archives of Australia’s (NAA) new information management policy

On 1 January, the National Archives of Australia’s (NAA) new information management policy, Building Trust in the Public Record came into force. The purpose of this new policy is to improve Federal agencies’ creation, collection,…

On 1 January, the National Archives of Australia’s (NAA) new information management policy, Building Trust in the Public Record came into force.

The purpose of this new policy is to improve Federal agencies’ creation, collection, management and use of information assets in support of service delivery, digital transformation, and building public trust in government. It identifies key information management requirements for agencies and provides action items to support their implementation.

The policy states that agencies will:

  • manage information assets strategically with appropriate governance and reporting, to meet current and future needs of government and community
  • implement fit-for-purpose information management processes, practices and systems that meet identified needs for information asset creation, use and re-use
  • reduce areas of information management inefficiency and risk to ensure public resources are managed effectively

Information assets should be managed within the principles of the Australian Government Information standard, which state that information should be:

  1. Governed systematically
  2. Created accurately and completely
  3. Described so they can be found and understood
  4. Stored securely and preserved so they remain usable
  5. Kept for as long as needed by government and community
  6. Accountably destroyed when no longer needed
  7. Kept in fit-for-purpose systems and managed according to value and use
  8. Available for reliable use and re-use by government and community

One of the key features of the new policy is its identification of areas of information management in which government agencies need to demonstrate improvement. Drawing on information gathered from the NAA’s annual Check-up surveys, the policy cites three requirements to address information management performance, and describes what success in these areas looks like.

The three requirements are:

  1. Manage information assets strategically with appropriate governance and reporting
  2. Implement fit-for-purpose information management processes, practices, and systems
  3. Reduce areas of information management inefficiency and risk

To assist agencies implement these requirements, the policy is accompanied by a series of action items and supporting resources, many of which are newly developed or recently updated by the NAA. Further resources will also be released over the coming year.

With agency Heads ultimately responsible for these imperatives, and the NAA monitoring progress through their annual Check-ups, Federal Government entities will need to ensure they take measures the comply with the policy’s requirements.

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