The National Archives will have a new director-general from May after the federal government appointed the head of South Australia's state records Simon Froude to the role.
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He will take over from predecessor David Fricker, who finished his 10-year stint in the role in December.
Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, the minister responsible for the National Archives of Australia, said Mr Froude would take over in overseeing the agency's work of managing government records. His appointment is for five years starting from May 23.
The government has also appointed five members to the National Archives advisory council for a three-year term. These include reappointed member Suzanne Hampel and new appointees Rachel Connors, Anthony Dillon, Alice Spalding and Amy Low.
Mr Froude is currently director of State Records of South Australia, a portfolio agency within the Attorney-General's Department of South Australia, and is responsible for overseeing records and archival management, freedom of information and privacy across the South Australian public sector.
He has also held roles as manager of government record keeping at the SA Department of the Premier and Cabinet; manager of records management at the SA Department for Education; and records manager at the SA Department for Treasury and Finance.
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In a joint media release, Senator Cash and Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General Amanda Stoker said Mr Froude's would lead the National Archives through the next phase of its transformation.
She said the appointments to the council "will be fully equipped with the expertise and personnel necessary to guide the institution through an important period of change and development".
Mr Fricker announced in September his term as director-general of the National Archives of Australia would conclude at the end of December last year.
Senator Stoker released the government's response to a major review of the archives in August and flagged a reform package to modernise the archives.
But the government stopped short of supporting a recommended expansion of the archives that would grow its staffing by transferring record-keeping employees to the agency from other parts of the public service.
The government has given the archives $67.7 million to save at-risk records after warnings from the Tune Review that precious historical items would become obsolete. It is also funding staffing to reduce backlogs of requests to access records, and to build the agency's new digital archive system.
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