Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the release on 5 October 2017 of the Consular State of Play 2016-17 (State of Play), which provides an overview of the Government's provision of consular assistance to Australians in the last financial year;

(2) acknowledges the hard work and dedication of Australian consular officials who have provided high-quality assistance to Australians in distress in 12,454 cases during 2016-17;

(3) notes with concern that a significant number of Australian travellers are travelling overseas without insurance;

(4) reiterates the Minister for Foreign Affairs' remarks in launching the State of Play that if travellers cannot afford travel insurance, they cannot afford to travel;

(5) acknowledges that the Australian Government will provide consular assistance where possible, while noting there are limits to what it can do to assist Australians in trouble overseas; and

(6) calls on Australians to:

(a) draw on resources such as Australian Government Smartraveller advice to inform themselves about their destination; and

(b) purchase insurance appropriate to their activities and circumstances.

Australians are famously avid travellers. Perhaps because of our relative remoteness we are passionate about exploring the world and discovering new cultures, whether it's the 18-year-old on a gap year, the young professional spending time working overseas, someone visiting their ancestral homeland, or an older Australian boarding a cruise ship, the number of Australians travelling is increasing. Our travelling patterns have also changed. Whereas once a major overseas trip would be a once-in-a-lifetime event, now it's a more regular experience. The reasons for this are not hard to establish. Twenty-six years of economic growth has increased our relative affluence and spending power, and simultaneously the cost of travel has fallen dramatically. This is reflected in the price of our perhaps most famous travel route, the kangaroo leg to London.

Just under 40 years ago a return economy ticket to London cost $9,400 in today's dollars, which was six times average weekly earnings. Today, the same trip can be undertaken comfortably for under $2,000, at around 1.08 of average weekly earnings. At any point in time, around one million Australians are resident offshore and in 2016-17, Australians undertook 10.7 million trips overseas. In 1980, that figure stood at just over one million. In one niche area, we have seen a massive growth in the number of Australians participating in a cruising holiday—over a million each year.

Our propensity for travel is unquestionably a good thing, both for individual Australians and for the nation as a whole. The personal enrichment and expanded knowledge and understanding travel brings is matched by the contribution of those with such experience to workplaces, educational institutions and the community at large. The increasing travelling habits of Australians are not, however, without consequences for the resources of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and, more specifically, its consular services.

The Consular State of Play report to which this motion relates documents the extraordinarily large number of cases our missions in 83 nations and our honorary consuls in 51 more face each year. In fact, in 2016-17 DFAT consular offices assisted in 12,454 cases of Australians in trouble overseas. In addition, the Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra responded to 66,000 calls.

We can be extraordinarily proud of the work of our DFAT personnel. I know from my experience in meeting the staff of our embassies and consulates that they represent the best traditions of public service and performance, often under considerable pressure, an incredible role for Australia. Those requiring consular assistance experience that service culture. The consular report makes for interesting reading in highlighting the issues Australians face overseas. In the last reporting year, for example, it records that 1,700 Australians fell ill or were hospitalised. 2,500 were reported, at least temporarily, missing. Over 1,600 Australians tragically died while travelling and a similar number were arrested.

Where they can, our DFAT staff will offer assistance to Australians in trouble. Unfamiliar language, cultural differences and different legal regimes can magnify problems we could otherwise cope with ourselves at home. For the novice traveller, more senior Australians or even someone with regular experience, knowing that an Australian embassy is able to assist can be a source of considerable relief. The report also sends a salutary reminder about the limitations of the services that Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade can reasonably provide. It is worth reflecting on the obligations and understanding we should all have when we embark on a foreign adventure. First and foremost, Australians should take the time to register with and read the very comprehensive Smart Traveller website. It is our obligation to make sure family and friends know where we are and highly desirable to keep DFAT informed by simply registering when we're in a foreign nation.

Similarly, it is our individual responsibility to ensure we have health insurance, with coverage that extends to the nations we visit and the activities we will be undertaking. While 90 per cent of Australians purchase travel insurance, many do not understand the nature of the coverage. And for the increasing number of Australians taking a cruise, it is often not enough to simply rely on ship medical services, as the costs for more serious incidents requiring onshore treatment can be hugely expensive.

DFAT sends a simple message: if you can't afford insurance, then you can't afford to travel. While consular services will assist, they cannot cover the cost of overseas medical care and we all need to bear that in mind. It is also worth remembering that Australia cannot intervene in foreign legal processes in another nation, and we shouldn't expect our embassies to do so. We can be proud of the work of our consulate staff, and I commend this motion to the House.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brisbane. I call the member for Canberra.

Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you Deputy Speaker. The 7th of March marks the 11th anniversary of the death of my dear friend Liz O'Neill. Liz was killed in the crash of Garuda Indonesia flight 200 in Jogjakarta in Indonesia. Liz worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. She worked to help keep the peace in Bougainville and to provide some comfort to the families in the morgues of Bali in 2002 and again in 2005.

In 2004 she was blown off her feet by the bomb that exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. In 2007 she died in the service of her country when her plane ran off the runway at Jogjakarta. Liz O'Neill was an extraordinary woman and she typifies all the public servants I have known over my decade-long career in public service before I went into my own business and then politics.

Public servants are subject to much derision from all quarters of Australian life, and I'm always baffled as to why that is so. They are servants of democracy, people who have chosen a career to serve our nation, to serve others, and this typifies the Public Service I know. Like Liz, they are smart. Like Liz, they are committed. Like Liz, they are highly educated. Like Liz, they are ultimately altruistic. Like Liz, they are keen to make a difference to improve lives. They are keen to serve our nation, be it here or overseas.

Liz was keen to serve our nation here, but she was particularly keen to advance that mission for Australia overseas. Liz was unfortunately killed in the line of duty, serving her nation. She was also killed with three other Australians that day. They were Australian public servants and Australian Federal Police officers Mark Scott and Brice Steel, an AusAID official, Allison Sudradjat, and the Australian Financial Review journalist, Morgan Mellish. All these people were servants of democracy. They were serving our nation overseas or they, as Australians, were serving the democratically elected representatives of our nation.

Those stories underscore the commitment and altruism, as I mentioned, and the sense of duty to nation by the DFAT officials and particularly consular officials. In my time in DFAT, particularly when I worked on the media desk, I heard some of the stories the consular officials had to face. I remember one that will stay with me forever. Two young Australian women in Africa, in a flea-ridden hotel, were eaten alive by bed bugs. They decided to walk around the little town they were staying in to find somewhere alternative to spend the night and they ended up getting killed, shot while they were wandering the streets. It was an absolutely tragic story.

So many consular officials quietly go about their business, like good public servants do, visiting Australians who are in jail for Christmas, baking them Christmas cakes and goodies, looking after Australians after they have got into a pickle in Bali with motorbike accidents and bar incidents. They are extraordinary, committed Australians and I commend them. I commend the member for this motion.

Just finally, I, too, want to underscore the fact that if you can't afford insurance then you shouldn't be travelling. That is a vitally important message that too many Australians overlook. Fortunately, we found that take up of travel insurance is high, at over 90 per cent. But there's still some confusion around what it covers and there are still those Australians who go overseas who can afford the trip, the air ticket, the hotel, the taxi ride and the tours, but can't afford the extra for travel insurance. They expect the Australian taxpayer to bail them out when they're in trouble. I saw so many instances of that when I was working at DFAT.

So, like the member for North Sydney, I commend all the consular officials serving our nation and Australians overseas. I do encourage Australians to go to smartraveller.gov.au to prepare for overseas travel. It also helps you assess the level of risk in the destination you are travelling to. Most importantly, remember this message: if you can't afford travel insurance, you can't afford to travel overseas.

Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Over the past year almost six million people passed through the Brisbane international airport. Related to that, Brisbane is getting its second airport runway. It's under construction right now. That's a reflection, partly, of our city's growing economic strength and prosperity, because it shows those expectations that Brisbane has when it comes to increased trade and tourism from right around the world, but especially from our region in the Asia Pacific. It's also a reflection of our city becoming a new world city, and the greater number of international events we're hosting, and it's a reflection of our increased penchant for travel. In short, Australians, and Brisbanites in particular, are travelling overseas in greater numbers and more often than our parents and grandparents did. Judging by the sheer number of calls that my office gets that are inquiries about consular services, especially over the holiday period like that just gone, it's fair to say our consular services are becoming increasingly important.

Many Aussie tourists probably wouldn't know where our embassies are, stationed in countries right across the world, and wouldn't even think of those sorts of services until they are in desperate need of them. Nonetheless, as the Consular state of play report for the past financial year shows, our consular services do some important work. We're talking about more than 12,000 consular cases of Australians in trouble overseas and 66,000 calls from Australians in trouble overseas to our Consular Emergency Centre here in Canberra. And then there is what I would call the tragic trifecta of about 5,000 cases split three ways, almost evenly: about 1,700 Australians who fell terribly ill and were hospitalised overseas; about 1,600 Australians who were arrested overseas; and then, most tragic of all, about 1,700 Australians who passed away overseas. By tragic example, I note a terrible story broke just hours ago in the news. These numbers are, I suppose, a small reflection of the important work of our consular personnel, often under trying circumstances.

It is also timely to give a reminder of what they can't do. The Australian government does provide that consular assistance wherever it possibly can, but there are limits. While more young Australians, especially, are travelling independently overseas, there is that growing trend of older Australians retiring abroad, particularly where there is a family connection. So we're seeing a surge in cases of people falling ill, especially in the Pacific, which reflects the growing number of cruise passengers that the member for North Sydney spoke about earlier. As he said, many Australians don't think that they need travel insurance when they're on a cruise. They think that the ship's travel doctor will take care of it, or Medicare will cover their expenses. The sad truth is that, in the event of a medical evacuation, lengthy hospital stays or repatriation, it can involve significant additional expenses. It is vital, as the previous speakers have said, for Australian travellers to ensure that they get comprehensive travel insurance before they travel overseas.

The previous speakers also spoke about that recent Insurance Council-DFAT survey of Australian travellers and what it found. It found that about nine in 10 Australians travelling overseas have insurance, but it also found that the vast majority of those travelling Australians have no idea what countries are covered in their insurance, no idea what their coverage is when they, say, ride a motorbike overseas, what their coverage might be for mental health conditions, or what their coverage might be for incidents involving alcohol or drug use. So overseas travellers, young and old, need to put time aside to adequately consider the question of travel insurance and the coverage of the policy that they are considering, no matter where they're going or how long they're going for. We heard that often-repeated principle from the previous two speakers: if you can't afford travel insurance, you can't afford to travel. And I want to reiterate our foreign minister's recently expressed concern that this message needs to get through to that last one in 10 people who are travelling overseas. The Australian government doesn't pay for medical treatment overseas. It doesn't pay for medical evacuations to Australia or any third country, or for repatriation of remains on death overseas. Many insurance policies do exclude mental health conditions. I welcome the work of our foreign affairs minister and DFAT to see that travel insurance providers can address some of those mental health related policy exclusions.

In conclusion, when I speak to constituents in Brisbane about their travel plans, I try to focus on those two priorities: put more thought into your travel insurance and make sure you've got it, and check out the Smartraveller website. On that website, DFAT publishers up-to-date travel advisories for almost every country and travel updates.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to support this motion. In fact, I'm proud because, like many Australians, I have had the enormous privilege of discovering the wonder of our globe. One of the great and most endearing parts of being an Australian and going overseas is seeing how many Australians choose to go beyond our boundaries to learn, grow and see the world surrounding us. It's one of the great joys to see that people can do it safely and securely, for the most part, and part of it comes back to the knowledge that we have consular services that are there for you. It's always important to understand that, when you're in the worst of situations, the government may be in a position to help, but, equally, you have to take responsibility for your circumstances if you want to be in the best position when you travel overseas.

It was encouraging to hear about the 12,454 consular cases that were addressed by our consular services in the recent report Consular state of play 2016-17. Of course, we'd rather not have any cases, but people always lose passports, people will always experience theft and, unfortunately, people will always experience some health conditions while they're overseas. The main thing is to make sure that we can help them as best we can, and our consular services do an excellent job. That is in addition to the good work of the Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra, which assisted 66,000 phone calls involving Australians in trouble overseas.

We have to take time to thank the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's consular officers for the work they do and the safety and peace of mind that they bring to families. I have not been in this situation, but I can imagine nothing worse than being in a situation where you don't know the circumstances that a family member is facing overseas. There may be a terrorist attack or the like, but DFAT is there to help and support people. Importantly, the Consular state of play report details the more than 1,700 cases of Australians who had health problems while they were overseas. Nine out of 10 Australians who travel overseas do have health insurance, so it's important to acknowledge that and to congratulate Australians for taking that degree of responsibility, but it's also important to acknowledge that there is one in 10 who do not, and we have to make sure that all of them have a proper understanding about the insurance they get.

While the government can provide consular assistance, the consular charter outlines DFAT's limitations of what can be done for Australians when they run into trouble overseas. It is not unending. DFAT is committed to providing equitable, effective, prompt and courteous consular services, but the government cannot pay for medical treatment when people are overseas, or for evacuation to Australia or to a third country, or for the repatriation of remains, may that situation be necessary.

That's why insurance matters so much, and every Australian has to make sure they get it, especially when people go on overseas cruises. The two previous speakers, the member for North Sydney and the member for Brisbane, have rightly spoken about the fact that you can't simply rely on ship medical services because, invariably, people will experience problems that go beyond that. So the increasing number of Australians going on overseas cruises still need travel insurance. Take Erica Conway, who was enjoying a cruise off the coast of Vanuatu when a sudden cyclone caused her to fall and break the top of her femur. In need of partial hip replacement, Erica was evacuated to a major hospital in Noumea. It could have been a complete nightmare, but Erica had taken out adequate travel insurance, which allowed the surgery in Noumea to go ahead at no cost. Erica's family was kept up to date, and her son, Simon, was flown from Tasmania to Noumea to be with his mother. Our consular officers provided support and guidance throughout their stay. That claim ultimately cost tens of thousands of dollars.

I've been to the United States myself and ended up in a hospital. I needed assistance, and it was not cheap. Similarly, I've been in Switzerland and had to get dental work, and, equally, it was not cheap. But I was able to rely on my travel insurance, so you've heard it from someone who has experience firsthand. Imagine the case of Erica if her policy had not covered the fall due to a technicality? That's why it's so important that DFAT has the Insurance Council of Australia's Survey of Australian's Travel Insurance Behaviour. It found that travel insurance claims remained at about 90 per cent. But, critically, people have to take responsibility for themselves. That's why it's important to get travel insurance and to investigate it properly, but also to make sure people check out and register appropriately with DFAT when they go overseas. And I always encourage people to visit the government's website to get up-to-date information about travel and security arrangements at Smartraveller.gov.au.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order for the next sitting day.