Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

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PUBLICATIONS (LEGAL DEPOSIT) BILL 2004



Bill presented and read a first time.

Mr AH KIT (Community Development): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.

For over 500 years, different national agencies around the world have been collecting, recording and making available the published cultural and intellectual heritage of nations through a customary obligation known as legal deposit. In more recent times, legal deposit has become a statutory provision which obliges publishers to deposit copies of their publications in libraries in the country of publication. In Australia, under the Commonwealth’s Copyright Act 1968, and various state acts, a copy of any work published must be deposited with the National Library of Australia and the appropriate state library. Under legal deposit legislation, the National Library and other state libraries assume an obligation to collect, store, preserve and provide access to all material lodged with them, with the exception of Western Australia where replacement legislation is before parliament.

The Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction that does not currently have this type of legislation. Legal deposit for the Northern Territory is becoming an increasingly important and complex public policy issue. It is vital for the long-term maintenance of equitable access to information for Territorians. It is also essential that legal deposit is based on legislative grounds. Without a statutory obligation, the development and preservation of a Northern Territory collection of published material would not be complete. Legal deposit for the Northern Territory will ensure that the works of local Territory authors and publishers will survive for the use of future generations of Territorians. Moreover, the comprehensive collection of Territory publications formed in this way will provide a much improved and more extensive means for research into all aspects of Territory life and culture, embracing history, literature, art, public administration, business, commerce, technological and scientific endeavour.

Legal deposit will benefit the Northern Territory by providing Territorians, for the first time, with complete access to the published intellectual record of the Northern Territory’s economic, social, cultural, scientific and educational activities. It has always been a primary responsibility of the Northern Territory Library to provide for the long-term preservation of, and access to, the Northern Territory’s documentary heritage. However, the Northern Territory Library has had to rely on voluntary deposit and direct purchase to develop its collection of Northern Territory publications housed in the Northern Territory collection. Statistics kept by the National Library of Australia, indicate that without legal deposit, the Northern Territory Library is receiving only 62% of the Northern Territory publishing output, with its current reliance on purchase and voluntary deposit.

The lack of legal deposit is therefore disadvantaging Territorians because the Northern Territory Library has not been able to develop a comprehensive Northern Territory collection equivalent to the documentary heritage collections of the Commonwealth and states, where legal deposit legislation applies. The publishing industry in the Northern Territory comprises the Northern Territory government; academic organisations, such as the Charles Darwin University; local government authorities; non-government organisations, such as the Institute for Aboriginal Development; the Historical Society of the Northern Territory; independent publishers; self-published writers; newspaper and serial publishers; and audio and video publishers such as the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association and Burundi Pictures.

Northern Territory publishers already provide the National Library of Australia with publications under the Commonwealth legal deposit legislation. This bill will not be onerous on the publishing industry and will provide the benefit that there is statutory consistency. There are also a growing number of electronic publishers with the Northern Territory government publishing, by far, the greatest volume of electronic data. Legal deposit legislation in Australia has historically covered print materials with the Commonwealth having to consider, and some of the states already having to amend, legislation to include audio, visual and electronic material. However, this bill breaks new ground, recognising that a significant part of the Territory’s information is now being published in digital form via the Internet. It is vital that these publications are collected and made accessible for future generations.

The advent of powerful new information technologies as a means of publication makes it imperative for legal deposit legislation to ensure that its original objectives are maintained. Even if the media or the information carriers change, the need to record, preserve and make available the content of the material deposited remains. This is particularly relevant given the emphasis being placed on providing advanced communications infrastructure to indigenous and other rural and remote communities. The role of web publishing and the provision of government information is also significant. Hence, this bill is unique in proposing and defining legal deposit legislation for the Northern Territory, in terms of physical and digital format.

The bill includes definitions of the terms, ‘document’, ‘publication’ and ‘publisher’ and requires that publishers of physical publications deposit copies with the Northern Territory Library. Further, it also requires that publishers of Internet publications for which no physical version is published, advise the Northern Territory Library of the uniform resource identifier on the publisher’s web site. The challenge of depositing dynamic electronic publications, which are live and therefore change moment by moment, will be met by ensuring access to deposited web sites are in real time and reflect the latest changes.

The definition of materials to be deposited under this act is very broad. I have already referred to this legal deposit legislation extending to government, local government, commercial agencies and private individuals. It also extends to the growing arena of Territory relevant self and vanity publishing with respect to clubs, churches, societies and a range of community organisations. This is particularly so with the advance of new technology and desktop publication. Any document related to the heritage of the Northern Territory used to be collected regardless of length, format and medium. Concerns have been expressed that the definition of ‘documents’ in the bill is too broad and may attract a surplus of material of little value or relevance. However, to further prescribe exemptions to the bill will decrease the possibility of gaining a full and relevant collection.

Items deposited under legal deposit will be subject to the Northern Territory Library’s Collection Development Policy for eventual lodgement in the Northern Territory Collection. Publications which assist a visual and written record of Northern Territory society are necessary to protect the Northern Territory’s social and cultural heritage.

This new legislation will complement the Information Act 2002 by ensuring guaranteed access to all government documents published in the Northern Territory. The development of a national deposit collection of published material in its broadest sense has to rely on a legislative foundation in order to ensure that all publishers will comply. Current voluntary arrangements in the Northern Territory are jeopardising the completeness of Northern Territory collections.

The intention of this bill is industry-focussed and is a cooperative and consensual approach to ensuring a complete Territory collection. The bill is not intended to be trivial or punitive, and deposit will be encouraged rather than a penalty imposed. The purpose of regulating legal deposit is to encourage compliance rather than pursue offenders.

Legal deposit legislation is in place in Belgium, Canada, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and in the United States. Most countries rely on a legal instrument of some sort in order to ensure the comprehensiveness of collections. UNESCO recently noted that a well organised legal deposit scheme is considered as an essential element of any national public policy of freedom of expression and access to information. Legal deposit legislation is also a means to comply with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which gives everyone the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.

The legislation exempts from deposit certain types of spatial data and publications containing culturally sensitive information. However, the legislation does not prevent a publisher from depositing a publication with culturally sensitive information for preservation and safe keeping. The Northern Territory Library will ensure that restrictions to access to legally deposited publications for commercial and other grounds are observed.

Madam Speaker, I commend the bill to honourable members.

Debate adjourned.




 

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