Records provide the evidence of deliberations, decisions and transaction.
Their continuing integrity is crucial for as long as they have value for government or the community. Typically, records have been valued more highly and managed better by those agencies whose functions centre round maintaining records - particularly those with registration functions prescribed by statute. The emphasis on occupational health, safety and welfare and the need for agencies to document not only present policies and practice, but those from earlier years, is another recent example where record keeping has had high priority in agencies, since it is a key component in keeping Workcover levies at the lowest cost. However, where agencies see that it is useful to have ready access to information on how present policies have evolved and worked, coupled with information about the various clients affected by their policies, programmes and procedures, a high profile for records management is seen as good business sense and good stewardship. Presently the South Australian Government, like other governments in Australia, is in a transitional stage of adjusting its services to a new environment, where technology enables fast inter-agency communication, dissolves agency boundaries into a web page hyperlink, and permits massive searches of information throughout the world.