Mandatory Standards for records management

Queensland State Archives (QSA) has been consulting with records and information practitioners from public authorities since late 2024.

During Round 2 of the consultation, 182 attendees joined our online consultation sessions, and we received 116 survey responses, providing us with valuable feedback.

Response to the draft Standards was overwhelmingly positive, however practitioner feedback provided an opportunity to make changes to further improve the drafts.

Draft Mandatory Standards

The current (Round 3) draft Mandatory Standards listed below, give greater clarity and better reflect the records management environment and business practices within Queensland government. We are currently consulting with Chief Executives on the five new requirements in this current round.

For reference the current drafts are below:

• DRAFT Mandatory Standard 1 - Make and Keep (PDF, 255.9 KB)
• DRAFT Mandatory Standard 2 - Disposal (PDF, 247.9 KB)

Supporting documents

Our team has started developing supporting documents, including guidelines, FAQs and Case Studies to supplement your understanding for implementation of the Mandatory Standards. These supporting documents are designed to be “live documents” that will continue to evolve to reflect the implementation experience of our practitioners.

Please bookmark this page to stay up to date.

For ease of reference, a comparison table has been included to show the changes QSA has made between the published Round 2 and Round 3 draft Mandatory Standards.

• Comparison table (PDF, 386.2 KB)
• DRAFT Guideline - Make and Keep (PDF, 422.2 KB)
• DRAFT Guideline - Disposal (PDF, 306 KB)
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) (PDF, 171.7 KB)
• Case Studies (PDF, 206.8 KB)

Community Survey

QSA also wants feedback from the general community about how government manages their records.  We have developed a survey which is available on the Get Involved community consultation platform.  If you would like to participate in this survey as a member of the wider community please click on the link below.  We would also appreciate any promotion of the community survey and have  developed a flyer that you can distribute to your local networks.

This survey closes on the 2 October 2025.

• 'Your records, your say' survey
• Flyer - 'Your records, your say' (PDF, 640.5 KB)

Previous versions of Draft Mandatory Standards and Guidelines

• Round 2 Draft - Mandatory Standard 1 – Make and Keep (PDF, 815.6 KB)
• Round 2 Guideline for Mandatory Standard 1 – Make and Keep (PDF, 929.2 KB)
• Round 2 Draft Mandatory Standard 2 – Disposal (PDF, 840.5 KB)
• Round 2 Guideline for Mandatory Standard 2 – Disposal
  (PDF, 844 KB)