Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member very much for his question and his interest. Australia provides excellent consular services. They are at least as good if not better than those of any other country, and I think other countries appreciate and recognise this. We have 173 consular locations around the world—that is, DFAT posts, Austrade posts and honorary consulates. We also have a consular-sharing agreement with Canada at 24 different posts.

There has been an enormous growth in the demand for consular services. Australians make almost five million overseas trips a year, and that represents a 40 per cent increase over the last three years. In 2005 DFAT managed an unprecedented number of major overseas emergencies. Honourable members will recall the tsunami, the London and Bali bombings, the Douglas Wood kidnapping in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, to name the most important of them. In the six months to December 2005 consular operations assisted some 10,800 Australians, following on from the 25,000 Australians who were assisted in the previous 12 months.

I just make the point that there is enormous demand for these services, and it is important that the government does its best to try to meet that demand. Obviously there are circumstances where we are limited in what we can do. Nevertheless, in the Treasurer’s excellent budget we have committed an extra $80.2 million over four years to manage the growing demands of consular casework and to enhance our contingency planning and crisis response capabilities. Included is funding for additional DFAT as well as Austrade consular staff in Canberra and overseas, backed by an enhanced training program and a major upgrade of DFAT’s crisis and case management systems and the DFAT crisis centre.

In conclusion let me say two things about this. First of all, we as a government have been very committed to providing good consular services. That has been a very high priority for me, for the department and for the government as a whole. Second, and I often say this, ultimately there is a limit to what we can do. Certainly, when it comes to the law, there are no special laws for Australians overseas. Australians are required to abide by the laws of the countries which they visit. If Australians do at least allegedly breach those laws—certainly if they are convicted for a breach of those laws—there is very little we can do. It is not possible for the Australian government to spring people out of foreign prisons. People have to adhere to the laws of the countries or the jurisdictions within which they find themselves.

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