1.2 Records sent and received by a government employee in the course of official duties are to be treated as official records . For public offices subject to the State Records Act these are State records as governed by the Act. As records of government agencies, electronic messages, like records in other formats, are subject to legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act 1989 and to legal processes such as discovery and subpoenas. The records may also be required by Royal Commissions, the Courts, auditors and other people or bodies to whom or which they may be subject. 2 Electronic messages are to be captured and maintained as functioning records 2.1 In order to function as a record, electronic messages require the preservation of their structure, context and content.
Content refers to the content of the message as received.
In order to maintain their value as evidence, electronic messages must be inviolate, that is, they cannot be altered or manipulated, for as long as they are retained. 3 Electronic messages must be captured into an identifiable recordkeeping system 3.1 Electronic messages required as evidence of substantive business activity should be captured directly into an electronic recordkeeping system. 4 Electronic messages must be effectively managed 4.1 Effective practices for managing electronic messages as records will help ensure that an agency can meet its business needs, accountability requirements and community expectations through recordkeeping. 4.2 Records should be retained for as long as required to meet identified recordkeeping requirements and no longer. Ephemeral messages, therefore, are records which only need to be retained for a short time and may not need to be captured into a recordkeeping system.