The government files, kept in climate-controlled conditions by Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), have been closed until now under Section 9 of the Public Records Act 1973, which requires "personal or private" records to be withheld from public view for a period of time.
PROV's keeper of public records, Justine Heazlewood, said files were closed with the aim of not opening an individual's records while they were alive.
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