Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (Aranz) president Joanna Newman, of Wellington, has also taken issue with a recent Government announcement it planned to "amalgamate" Archives New Zealand and the National Library with the Department of Internal Affairs.
The move would cost $2.5 million in the first year and might save as little as $3 million over three years, Ms Newman said.
Reducing the status of the chief archivist was "a backward step for accountability of the New Zealand Government" and would make it "extremely difficult" to ensure that government agencies kept good records, she said.
Mr Timmins is a former Aranz president and is Aranz Otago-Southland branch chairman.
The Otago Daily Times has sought discussion papers linked to the merger, under the Official Information Act.
Mr Timmins said he was not convinced by a Cabinet paper, released by the Government which recommended several recent departmental and state agency mergers.
A key section covers the proposed Archives New Zealand merger with Internal Affairs in less than two pages.
"It is quite clear that continuing with a stand-alone Archives department is not necessary," the paper says.
Internal Affairs had estimated that efficiencies in information and communication technology and "elimination of back-office duplication" would deliver financial efficiencies of $3 million to $9 million.
Full-time equivalent staff numbers would be reduced by at least 15.
The amalgamation would also result in "future proofing" of key skills and functions "by placing them on a much larger corporate platform with ongoing viability in times of fiscal constraint", the paper said.
"I'm still very unhappy," Mr Timmins said.
The merger process, which had excluded public input, including from Aranz, genealogists and historians, had been "very unsound".
The talk of "future proofing" and "larger corporate platform" was "nonsense" in this case and he was concerned that staff and funding cuts could damage parts of Archives New Zealand's work.
The Cabinet paper lacked detail about how the merger would work and failed to acknowledge that independent control of national archives was regarded as international best practice.
"I think it's a very weak paper to go to Cabinet.
"I'm still very concerned for Archives New Zealand and the independence of the chief archivist," he said.
• Archives New Zealand was removed from Internal Affairs and established as a separate department in 2000.
