Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Australian passports are among the most secure and trusted travel documents in the world. The government is committed to maintaining the integrity and security of Australian passports in the interests of all Australians. This ensures that Australians are accepted at borders across the world and gives other countries the confidence to provide visa-free access to facilitate Australians' travel. To achieve this, Australia continuously strives to improve all aspects of the passport system through innovation and administrative and legislative change. This is essential, with more than 1.8 million Australian passports issued last financial year—the most ever—and with 54 per cent of Australians having a passport.

Australia is a leader in passport innovation. In 2005, Australia was one of the first countries to introduce the ePassport—a passport with an electronic chip. This was a quantum leap forward in the security of the passport system. In 2014, the government released a new generation of Australian passports, the P series. The P-series passport includes a number of security enhancements: a new, state-of-the-art, colour floating-image laminate, with several optical and physical security features and a new stronger, lighter, faster chip. These innovations mean our passports are more resilient and impossible to forge without detection.

The security of the Australian passport owes as much to the strength of the passport-issuing process as to the security features of the passport booklet. We have in place stringent identity-proving requirements, to the highest international standards, and we are leaders in the use of facial recognition to help prevent the acquisition and fraudulent use of Australian passports.

In addition to the amendments in the Passports Legislation Amendment (Integrity) Bill 2015, a number of separate reforms to the Australian passport system are being progressed to achieve deregulatory savings for Australians and further protect the integrity of Australian passports, including removing penalty fees for lost and stolen passports to encourage their immediate reporting and cancellation, to help prevent fraud, and simplifying passport application forms.

As part of our continual efforts to improve the Australian passport system, we have proposed a number of amendments to the passports legislation in the Passports Legislation Amendment (Integrity) Bill 2015. The bill seeks to refine and clarify the legislation and to strengthen the government's ability to respond to unlawful activity in relation to Australian travel documents.

The bill includes four principal amendments and various minor and technical amendments. First, the bill provides for the issue of a travel document to a person, on the initiative of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to facilitate a lawful requirement to travel. This provision is limited to the following circumstances: to effect the lawful removal, deportation or extradition of a person to or from Australia or to effect international prisoner transfer.

Second, the bill will align the definition of 'parental responsibility' more closely to that in the Family Law Act 1975. Those persons who do not otherwise have parental responsibility for a child but under a court order can spend time with, or have access to, a child will no longer be required to consent to a child having a passport.

Third, the bill provides that the Minister for Foreign Affairs may refuse to process a passport application if there are reasonable grounds to suspect fraud or dishonesty in the application. This provision does not prevent a person from being issued a travel document if they submit a fresh application with the correct information.

Last, the bill modifies the existing offences framework in the Australian Passports Act and adds a new offence to strengthen the government's ability to respond to the fraudulent use of Australian travel documents. The new offence will target persons who make or provide false Australian travel documents with the intention that those documents may be used as if they were genuine. These amendments are necessary to deter and respond to increasing fraudulent use of travel documents and the wider implications of such activity in enabling serious crime such as terrorism, drug smuggling and people trafficking.

The government is also tabling two amendments to the bill. The first amendment addresses a drafting error. The bill currently excludes from merits review a decision to refuse to issue a travel related document on the minister's own initiative to facilitate a lawful requirement for a person to travel. The amendment removes that provision and instead excludes from merits review a decision to issue a travel related document on the minister's own initiative, consistent with the policy intent as set out in the explanatory memorandum for the bill.

The second amendment enables a merits review for a decision to refuse any name or signature of a person that the minister considers to be unacceptable, inappropriate or offensive. It is appropriate that this decision is subject to merits review, as it is discretionary and affects the interests of a person.

In conclusion, this bill seeks to refine and clarify the existing passport legislation that has stood us in good stead for the last 10 years. It seeks to protect the Australian community by preventing and deterring the fraudulent use of Australian travel documents and related crimes. The Australian passport is unquestionably the most important identity document in Australia. It is held in high regard around the world. It is critical that the government ensure that this does not change. I thank all honourable members who have contributed to this debate, and I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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