Neither the SSMA nor the Interpretation Act 1987 contain a definition of “minutes’.
The Macquarie Dictionary defines “minutes” in these terms:
“the official record of the proceedings at a meeting of a society, board, committee, council, or other body.”
In my view a document is not the “minutes” of a meeting until it becomes the official record of the meeting by being adopted at a subsequent meeting.
The position about minutes is made unnecessarily confusing because of the wording of various provisions of the SSMA which use the word without distinguishing between draft minutes and official/adopted minutes. In the parts quoted below, I have added in bold words to differentiate the two types of minutes:
(1) Records to be kept
The owners corporation must keep full and accurate (official) minutes of its meetings that include (official) minutes of all motions passed at its meetings.
Schedule 1 paragraph 8
(1) The following matters must be included in, or accompany, the notice given of all general meetings—
(a) a form of motion to confirm the (draft) minutes of the last general meeting of any kind,
The functions of a secretary of an owners corporation include the following—
(a) to prepare and distribute (draft) minutes of meetings of the owners corporation and submit a motion for confirmation (as official) of the (draft) minutes of any meeting of the owners corporation at the next such meeting,
Draft minutes may fail to be accurate through inattention, sloppiness or deliberate action. The requirement is for “full and accurate” minutes which, in my view, requires the amendment of draft minutes to make them full and accurate before they are capable of being adopted as official minutes.