Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I will speak to the point of this topic and to the bill that is being debated before the parliament at the moment, the Passports Legislation Amendment (Integrity) Bill 2015, and offer that Labor and I support the passage of this bill. The bill comes about as a result of a review of Australian passports legislation, and it amends the Australian Passports Act 2005, the Foreign Passports (Law Enforcement and Security Act) 2005 and makes some minor consequential amendments to a number of other acts. It also repeals the Australian Passports (Transitionals and Consequentials) Act 2005.

Labor, of course, welcome legislation that strengthens and improves the integrity of our passports and visas system, and we believe that this bill does that. Labor, in government, made a number of changes to the passport system including the introduction of the N Series of passports which feature the additional forward countermeasures of the ghost image, a retro reflective floating image and images of Australia printed throughout the document, which made every passport page and every visa page unique. This resulted in a passport which was very difficult to falsify through page substitution or through tampering.

We are all aware of the fact that, in recent times, people have been attempting to tamper with passports, and have been attempting, through some very sophisticated measures, to tamper with and, indeed, counterfeit passports. There have been quite highly sophisticated and well documented cases of this occurring. Even highly sophisticated documentation and safeguards will not stop brazen fraudsters from attempting to tamper with these documents. On 18 May of this year the Herald Sun reported that, in the past three financial years, 65 Australian passports had been suspected of being forged or tampered with and 114,000 passports had been reported as lost or stolen.

On occasion a person reports a passport lost or stolen so that it will be cancelled in order to intentionally disrupt the travel of another person. There are people who attempt to manipulate the travel document and passport system in the country so as to disrupt the travel plans of another person. Unfortunately this is most often the case of separated parents where one parent is attempting to travel overseas, in particular to take a child of the relationship overseas, and the other parent seeks to disrupt those legitimate travel plans. That is something that will be dealt with by these reforms. It is a sad fact of the system and a sad fact of circumstances when parents try to manipulate the system for their own personal gain. Under this legislation and under this amendment, which came about as a result of a review of the operation of passports and travel documents, this was one of the issues that was raised in that review. Under this amendment, making a false or misleading statement in respect of a travel document or a passport will be an offence if the statement is made on or about an Australian travel document or an application for an Australian travel document.

Another 24 passports in the last three years were alleged to have been used by people attempting to impersonate the identity of a genuine passport holder. In circumstances that we are currently witnessing throughout the world, particularly in respect of the rise of Daesh in the Middle East and individuals seeking, for reasons unknown to me, to travel to the Middle East and participate in some of the activities of Daesh, we have seen cases of not only Australians but also other nationals throughout the world attempting to use either counterfeited or fraudulent documents, or indeed to impersonate others, in order to leave the country for those purposes of travelling to the Middle East to be involved in fighting or at least to be involved in the activities of Daesh.

We saw a dangerous example of this just last year, when Ahmad Saiyer Naizmand left Australia on his brother's passport after his own passport had been cancelled for security reasons. Here we saw someone who this legislation is specifically aimed at attempting to stop leaving the country. It is a sad case, because we all know that that person did go on to the Middle East to attempt to work with Daesh and become involved in so-called foreign fighting. This individual used his brother's passport. His had been cancelled some months earlier, for good reason, it now appears. He was exactly the person police and security authorities were attempting to target as someone who may be susceptible to these sorts of activities and may seek to leave the country for these activities; yet he got around the system. He did that by using his brother's passport and basically faking his identity.

These reforms are aimed at ensuring that that cannot occur. That is why they have the wholehearted support of myself and the Labor Party. The integrity of our passports is crucial for individual Australians who rely on them for safe travel and as an important means of verifying their identity. In these days of heightened security concerns and increasingly sophisticated international criminal syndicates, Australia's passport security is paramount. I have mentioned some of the cases of counterfeiting and tampering with documents and also attempting to imitate others.

This bill does a number of other things. One of them is that it aligns the definition of parental responsibility more closely with that of the Family Law Act to provide more certainty surrounding the issue of who is required to consent to a child's passport or travel document. This goes to the issue that I mentioned earlier in my remarks about parents attempting to manipulate the system by attempting to stop or tamper with the efforts of others to travel overseas with children. It came about as a result of a review of the operation of these provisions.

As a result of these reforms and this bill, the following persons are required to consent to a child having a passport: firstly, parents who have not had their parental responsibility removed by a court; persons who, under a court order, have parental responsibility or with whom the child is to live; and persons with guardianship, custody or parental responsibility for the child under an Australian law. Persons or individuals who have a court order to spend time with or enable access to a child, but who do not have parental responsibility, will no longer be required to consent to a child having a passport. Again, this came about as a result of the review and is attempting to deal with those cases of people with 'spend time with' orders or 'access to' orders attempting to disrupt the travel plans of those who may seek to leave the country with a child.

It is also important to note that these amendments do not remove the requirement contained in the Family Law Act for a person taking a child overseas to seek the consent in writing of all persons in whose favour a court order is made in relation to the child or all other parties to proceedings for the making of a parenting order in relation to the child. That aspect of the operation of the law in respect of consent by parents regarding the travel of children overseas will remain the same.

The bill bolsters Australia's strong passport security protocols and it also ensures that the minister retains power to issue travel-related documents and specifies the circumstances in which a document can be issued. The explanatory memorandum goes through those circumstances in which the minister may issue a travel document. The power to issue the travel document is still retained by the minister, but the bill expands the circumstances in which that travel document can be issued. Those circumstances are the lawful extradition of a person to or from Australia; the lawful deportation or removal of a person to or from Australia; and the lawful prisoner transfer of a person to or from Australia. This reform is meant to deal with circumstances in which a person may be under an extradition order with a country with which Australia has an extradition treaty. The person may be subject to a deportation order because of a criminal conviction or the like, but that person refuses to sign for or make an application for a travel document. Currently, the power for the minister to issue that travel document, to ensure that the transfer occurs, is somewhat limited. This amendment will deal with that, granting the minister, in those circumstances, the power to issue those travel related documents.

Importantly, all of the powers of the minister are merits reviewable, principally by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. An important element of an administrative review of executive decision, with respect of the cancellation of a passport or travel document or the issuing of a travel document in circumstances to facilitate an extradition or transfer, will be reviewable by the courts.

In summation, these reforms come about as a review of the operation of the Passports Act. We believe they strengthen the integrity and operation of the issuing of passports and travel documents. They do not affect the operation of the family-law provisions, in respect of parental consent, but they do bolster circumstances in which the minister can cancel or review a travel document and order or issue travel documents for the deportation or extradition of Australians to or from Australia. On that basis, we believe that they strengthen our security protocols and ensure that our system of operation of passports and travel documents is strengthened. On that basis I commend the bill to the House.

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