[LINK] The battle to save government decision-making records

[Tom Worthington]

On 19/4/21 11:07 am, Stephen Loosley wrote:
> From pen and paper to Wickr: the battle to save government decisions 
> By Shane Wright  April 19, 2021
> https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/from-pen-and-paper-to-wickr-the-battle-to-save-government-decisions-20210416-p57jqr.html
>
>  Laws made for the days of pen and paper could allow the nation’s
> most senior ministers and public servants to avoid scrutiny of their
> decisions ...

Unauthorized destruction of Commonwealth records is a crime. But the 
penalty is only a fine of about $4,000 
http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/aa198398/s24.html

Perhaps the fine should increased by an order of magnitude, and tied to 
the criminal's ability to pay. So a cabinet minister would pay about 
half a million dollars.

ps: I was on the committee which wrote the guidelines for dealing with 
electronic records in 1995: 
http://web.archive.org/web/20020601155855/http://www.defence.gov.au/imsc/edmsc/iedmtc.htm#RTFToC5 



-- 
Tom Worthington, http://www.tomw.net.au