As we all know, the fundamental purpose of the NSW government's archives is to maintain the records of government, to ensure records are created, to keep a paper & digital trail of those records, to preserve records and most importantly, to ensure the NSW government remains accountable over time.
This current proposal to merge State Archives and Records NSW with Sydney Living Museums is extremely bizarre and lacking in intellectual rigour. The merger idea has been tacked onto a raft of valid changes to the Act as a thought bubble without a proper and far reaching business case to examine the economics or the advantages and disadvantages of such a merger.
Furthermore the proposal was presented to the Parliamentary Inquiry as a 'done deal'' and it was clear to me when I was being cross examined by the inquiry that some Liberal Party members were genuinely surprised by my vociferous and outspoken opposition to this merger.
The justification has been to open up the archives to tell stories, the archives have always been open and many external agencies have used the NSW State Archives for exhibitions over the years, including Sydney Living Museums (formerly Historic Houses Trust of NSW) the rationale to join these disparate organisations is just not there. Economically or intellectually. They have vastly different remits, yet can still work together satisfactorily in the exhibition sphere as separate entities, and have done so for many years.
Putting valuable resources into telling stories is not the prime function of the archives and nor should it be. It will divert SARA from its core role as the guardian and custodian of one of the State's most valuable assets
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Feeling for you all. A crazy and unthinkable situation.