Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion brought by the member for Fadden and I congratulate and thank him for bringing this matter to this chamber. This motion is in relation to the efficiency of passport applications. It relates to both the cost and the timeliness of that processing. I was in this chamber when I heard the member for Bruce attempt to trivialise this motion, to trivialise this issue and describe it as 'silly' on a number of occasions. Then I heard the member Bennelong in this chamber, who went through all of the reasons why it is so important to Australians that we have faith and confidence in the way that our applications for passports are processed. I was also here for the speech by the member for Menzies. He outlined how important it is, particularly during this cost-of-living crises, that Australians are not charged so much for their passports.

Australians are definitely paying more for their passports under this Albanese Labor government, and the National Audit Office has now found that the service is also inefficient. So we're paying more for an inefficient service. This is yet another example of the Albanese government's failure to deliver on crucial government services, another example of government mismanagement under Albanese's Labor. To back this up, the report of 7 February found some glaring errors in the Australian Passport Office's method of processing passport applications. It said that they 'are not being processed in a time and resource efficient manner'.

The report also found that the approach of the Australian Passport Office was not customer-focused. This is not a silly or trivial issue; this is an important issue. The issuing of passports is very important to Australians who need to go overseas to see their loved ones, their families, who want to travel and experience the sheer joy of overseas travel, embracing other cultures. Because when we embrace other cultures we learn more about the world, we learn about Australia's place in the world and we learn more about ourselves, so I simply cannot accept those on the other side saying this is a trivial issue.

DFAT's processing of applications, the way they do it and the amount they charge us are extremely important to Australians. The government should be making it easier for Australians to obtain passports, and I have no doubt that the public servants within the Passport Office are working as hard as they can, but this report says they need more help. They need more help from the department, which means they need more help from their minister. This is a Westminster system of government; the minister must properly resource her department.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:26 to 12:39

The fact that we've now had two increases, and we're looking at a third, in the cost of passports for Australians is not acceptable in the cost-of-living crisis when we consider that Australians will now be paying $398, almost $400, for an adult passport. Recent analysis has found that Australia is home to the second most expensive passport in the world. We are now closer to Liechtenstein, which currently charges $432 for its passports. New Zealand passports are $194. US passports are $251. So these price increases by the Albanese Labor government now put our passport costs as the second highest in the world. But the report from the Australian National Audit Office found, concerningly, that the system is not efficient.

I will say it is very good to see that DFAT has now agreed to all of the nine recommendations that came out of the Audit Office's report. Hopefully, going forward, we will see more efficient processing of passports, but in the meantime I call upon the Albanese Labor government to put all future fee increases on hold until DFAT has addressed and implemented these recommendations.

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