Poumanaaki Chief Archivist's annual report 2022/23 tabled in the House of Representatives

28 May 2024

The Poumanaaki Chief Archivist’s annual report on the State of Government Recordkeeping 2022/23 was tabled in the House of Representatives.

In accordance with the Public Records Act 2005, Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand has a critical regulatory role to ensure that public sector organisations create and maintain full, accurate and accessible records now and in the future. Information management requirements are enduring through organisational changes. As public sector organisations support policy changes and a period of fiscal constraint, these requirements provide a foundation for ensuring organisations implement changes effectively and accountably.

Evidence from previous periods of rapid institutional change shows the risk to continuity of recordkeeping is high and will require particular attention. We will continue to monitor and advise agencies to ensure that records are managed appropriately in accordance with legislative requirements.

The State of Government Recordkeeping 2022/23 details the work and initiatives that emphasize the importance of and help enable effective recordkeeping. Robust information management in the public sector is a cornerstone of democracy, affirming evidence of government decision-making that results in outcomes across all aspects of the lives of New Zealanders.

In 2022/23, we made high-quality digital copies of large volumes of highly sensitive public archives and safely supplying these to public offices for use as evidence and research supporting the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, cataloguing, indexing and digitising well over a million archival images.

The work on the Crown Response to the Royal Commision Inquiry ramped up in 2022/23 as support to the inquiry itself slowed. A change to the disposal rules is underway to improve the rules about how long care-related records should be retained and how people can have a say in these decisions. More recommendations may come with the Royal Commision Inquiry's final report, but we are already working to capture the wider implications of the impacts of poor recordkeeping in care environments and to ensure a better future.

Work has also progressed in the areas of improving Collections search and regulatory capabilities. We also led work on a proof of concept which showed that machine learning tools have the potential to auto-classify digital public records and surface information of interest to Māori.

Construction is underway on the new archival building for our nation’s taonga and heritage. The new building will provide a state-of-the-art archives repository and specialist facilities for some of the holdings of Te Rua Mahara, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa National Library of New Zealand and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. It is expected to be open to the public in 2026.

Read the summary and download the full report about the state of recordkeeping across government.