I think there are two times - When the penalties for non-compliance outweigh the costs of compliance. When the changes required to meet the compliance standard won't cause negative side effects that outweigh any gains made. A core challenge for all of us working with government records, is that the records and archives acts are unenforceable - which is why they've never been enforced.
In government, finance management has compliance requirements that are strictly regulated, so does HR, risk, and now even data security - and records management has compliance requirements that are..... not regulated in the slightest. And, when something goes wrong (see recent grant management news articles ) all voices claim "they didn't follow the records management rules" (often, the rules about the very creation of the records). Some Australian jurisdictions may indeed be able to do more in the oversight/regulation space, but simply choose not to. Is this perhaps because Australia's archival institutions see themselves as cultural entities instead of having responsibilities to ensure the integrity of the evidence of government (records)? In organisations, when faced with the inevitable 'no one's going to do anything to us if we break records management laws, even if we get caught - focusing on compliance is indeed a wasted effort.
In government, finance management has compliance requirements that are strictly regulated, so does HR, risk, and now even data security - and records management has compliance requirements that are..... not regulated in the slightest. And, when something goes wrong (see recent grant management news articles ) all voices claim "they didn't follow the records management rules" (often, the rules about the very creation of the records). Some Australian jurisdictions may indeed be able to do more in the oversight/regulation space, but simply choose not to. Is this perhaps because Australia's archival institutions see themselves as cultural entities instead of having responsibilities to ensure the integrity of the evidence of government (records)? In organisations, when faced with the inevitable 'no one's going to do anything to us if we break records management laws, even if we get caught - focusing on compliance is indeed a wasted effort.