Appraisal Statement

Under section 47 of the Public Records Act 2023 (the Act), the State Archivist is authorised to make an Appraisal Statement stating criteria for identifying public records appropriate for retention in the custody of the archives.

Accordingly, Queensland State Archives’ Appraisal Statement has now been revised, updated and re-issued in line with the new Act. New features of the Appraisal Statement include:

• Recognition of the importance of public records for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples and affirming QSA’s commitment to the 2019 Tandanya Adelaide Declaration
• A new foundation appraisal principle that affirms appraisal should be “Supportive of First Nations cultures and knowledge methods”
• Additional criteria for determining whether records have enduring value, including new general appraisal characteristics
• Specific appraisal characteristics with examples of both public records which fall within the characteristic as well as public records not required to be retained
• Addition of a new characteristic for records that support “First Nations Peoples and Cultures”
• “Queensland Society and Culture” replaces the former “Substantial contribution to community memory” characteristic
• Additional information on the appraisal of records in digital formats
• A glossary of key terms.