Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

It is nice to be in the chamber with the very famous member for Fowler, who specialises in talking about matters that her party does not want her to talk about. I congratulate her for her candid speech on the education bill. But I digress. The coalition support this bill. We brought in amendments to the legislation in 2006 and 2008. These amendments complement the Australian Law Reform Commission’s recommendations on the Archives Act 1983. This is really a technical bill but it does update the Archives Act to ensure that it reflects modern thinking and modern terms of parlance with respect to the keeping of text and data storage technologies, and it will facilitate the better and continuing high-quality storage of Australian archival history. The bill is a very slightly altered version of the Archives Amendment Bill 2006, which of course was put together by the previous government. As a consequence, it would be unusual for the coalition to oppose it.

Australia is very fortunate to have a very sophisticated level of keeping of Australian archival history. We do many things very well in Australia, and this is one of the particularly good things that we do. Our keeping of historical records on aspects of Australian history, whether it is the most recent history or going back to the early parts of Federation, is the envy of most of the rest of the world. It has had something of a resurgence in recent years because of the resurgence of interest in the war records of, in particular, those who fought in the First World War and the Second World War.

All members of parliament would be well acquainted with requests from constituents to help find the records of grandparents and parents who served in Korea and Vietnam and in times before so that families can learn about the history of their fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, grandparents et cetera. We have all had experience with the tremendous and sophisticated level of archive keeping Australia. We hope that that will continue and this bill will facilitate that. It is nice to be able to say to a constituent that we are almost certain that we will be able to get the records of those who fought and served with the Australian armed forces going back now 107 years.

There is another aspect to the archives for those in politics who are particularly obsessed with political history. We look forward to New Year’s Day every year when the 30-year rule allows for the release of cabinet documents from 30 years ago. I confess to being something of a political junkie. After 15 years in this place, one would expect nothing less. I must admit I bound out of bed on New Year’s Day to read the newspapers and see the exciting things that happened in cabinet 30 years ago. The time of the Dismissal was a particularly interesting year for all of us. Although I was eight, it is my first political memory. Without the archives, without the very sophisticated level of archive keeping in Australia, that information would not be available. We joke about it a little but for many countries there is no archival history of the activities of their governments and their armed forces, and many countries would wish to have the amazing record keeping we have in Australia. I commend the bill to the House. I am grateful to be able to say that on this occasion the opposition stands foursquare with the government in bringing in this bill.

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