Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) a report released on 7 February 2024 by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) on the Australian Passport Office revealed that passport applications were not being processed in a 'timely and resource efficient manner';

(b) since being elected, the Government has hiked up the price of Australian adult passports of 10 years by $38 and is planning for a second increase this year of $52 from 1 July 2024;

(c) while the Treasurer has called the price hike a 'relatively modest' change, Australians will be paying 29 per cent more to get their passports during a cost of living crunch; and

(d) Australians already pay more for their holiday thanks to the Government blocking airline competition and now they are paying more just to be allowed to leave the country; and

(2) calls on the Government to reverse their big passport price hike until they comprehensively respond to the ANAO recommendations so that Australians get a fair deal on passports.

Australians are paying more for their passports under this Albanese Labor government in return for what is a woefully inefficient service. A report released on 7 February by the Australian National Audit Office on the Australian Passport Office has revealed: 'Passport applications 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. Since being elected, Labor has hiked up the price for Australians, with an adult passport for 10 years going up by $38. If that weren't enough, they announced in MYEFO in December last year that there would be a second increase of 15 per cent from 1 July 2024. Fifteen per cent on an adult passport for 10 years is $52. That means Australians will be paying almost $400 for a passport from 1 July.

If we think of a typical Australian family of four—two adults and two children—to get those passports, it's going to cost almost $1,200. To make matters worse, let's say that someone needed their passport urgently—the priority processing fee has gone up by $15. Take into account the 1 July increase, and you're looking at a $290 processing fee. That, with a 10-year passport, will now cost you $688. The icing on the cake—or, rather, the next big slap in the face—was that the Treasurer called the 15 per cent increase 'relatively modest'. In a desperate cash grab, the Albanese Labor government has twice hiked the price of passports, with a third increase to come, yet this report reveals that Australians are forking out more just to wait longer for their passports. The ANAO report recorded that 24 per cent of passport applications for the 2022-23 financial year took longer than six weeks to process. The joke of the analysis is that the Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs put out a statement in March 2023 stating:

The Albanese Government is helping more Australians get travelling again, with passport wait times now back to pre-COVID normal.

We cannot deny that there was a huge surge in passport applications following a hiatus during the COVID years. However, this does not explain the Labor government's intent to keep hiking up prices even after demand has returned to pre-COVID levels.

It seems that the Albanese Labor government has no shame in slugging Australians with higher passport fees whilst delivering woefully inadequate services during our cost-of-living crisis. The cost of international travel has increased by 23 per cent in 15 months, yet the Labor government prevented competition by blocking a bid by Qatar Airways for more flights. Australians already pay more for their holiday thanks to Labor blocking airline competition. Now they're paying more just to be allowed to leave the country.

While this government talks up a big cost-of living-relief agenda, we know that when Labor gives with one hand it will take twice as much from you with the other. We saw it recently with the spin on the tax cuts, where a $15-a-week tax relief measure was billed as revolutionary. Whilst the relief is welcome, net disposable income for the Australian family has fallen by $8,000, almost $160 a week, under this Labor government. During a cost-of living-crunch, the Albanese Labor government is putting a holiday even further out of reach for hardworking Australians.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has accepted all nine recommendations of the ANAO report pushing for:

… improving the measurement of time efficiency, a greater focus on resource efficiency, improved complaints handling and improving the department's time and resource efficiency.

The Albanese Labor government should reverse their big passport price hikes until they have comprehensively responded to these recommendations so that Australians can get a fair deal on passports, not just a costly, stressful mess. At a time when Australians are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, another price hike is the last thing young families want. Whether it's the introduction of a new tax or a price hike, life will always be more expensive under Labor. So, yet again, we see the true colours of a Labor government shining through. Not only are they failing to deliver the actual service that Australians deserve and need in a timely fashion but we are all paying more.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know it's Monday but—oh, dear me!—you don't know whether to laugh or cry. I know this bloke's new here. I don't know actually know who he is, but I know he's new here. But, if someone told you to do this, just say no next time. Honestly. If you wrote this, use ChatGPT next time. This is ridiculous.

Yes, you're right: the first bit of the ANAO report on the Australian Passport Office, released on 7 February, revealed:

Passport applications are not being processed in a time and resource efficient manner.

Well, yes, they did find that. Of course they did. But keep reading the report, because, if you think this is an attack on the government, you've missed the point. I wonder why the Audit Office found that. They confirmed what everyone who tried to get a passport in 2022 knew: the previous government failed to plan for an entirely predictable surge in passport applications. It's bleedingly obvious. It's not rocket science. When you close the borders for a couple of years, millions of passports expire. Why would people renew a passport when they're not going to travel? And then guess what? You open the borders and there are millions more passport applications. It's entirely predictable. It's so simple that even the Liberals should have been able to understand it. The ANAO audit report also found that the former coalition government was warned in December 2020 to prepare for 'a pent-up demand surge'. Anyone should have been able to see it. The Public Service warned them, but they did nothing. They had ample time to prepare. It was a complete failure in governance by the Liberals to prepare directly for these backlogs and delays which Australians experienced.

Because of their failure and incompetence, it took 50 days, on average, to get a passport at the peak of the delays. That means people missed trips. They missed people's funerals. They missed family weddings. They missed being reunited with their loved ones they hadn't seen during their precious bit of annual leave, the time that they could go. They missed work trips. They missed paid-for holidays because of the incompetence of that mob opposite, who are so silly they come in and move a motion thinking they're attacking the government when they're attacking themselves. They weren't very good at being the government. They're not very good at being the opposition. What's the contrast? This government fixed their mess. In 2023, 94.9 per cent of routine passport applications resulted in passports being issued in a 10-day time frame. The average wait time to get a passport was down to 3.9 days. I genuinely have no idea why they chose to bring a debate on their own failure.

But how could they fail at something this basic? Well, if you watch the television you might get a clue. It's because, instead of governing, during that wasted decade of decay and division they were fighting with each other. Senator Reynolds described their culture. She talked about people being blackmailed, threatened or intimidated to sign a petition. Senator McKenzie said that, while that internal war was going on, 'it was like being strapped to a suicide bomber'. She said: 'Something horrific and catastrophic was going to happen. You wish they wouldn't do it, but they do it anyway.' The former member for Bennelong, John Alexander—there's a much better member for Bennelong over there, I see—also said something, and this is one of their own describing the former government and what it did instead of fixing the Passport Office. This is what he said about their government: 'In looking at the nine years in power and our three prime ministers, the playing of politics was always the No. 1 game, the No. 2 game and the No. 3 game. It's not productive and it's not edifying.'

So let's be really clear. This is a silly motion. They think they're attacking the government, and they're attacking themselves and exposing their own record of failure. There was an entirely predictable surge in passport applications that their government failed to plan for because they were too busy fighting each other and trying to get back at each other as if it were a never-ending version of Mean Girls. In their case, it was mainly mean boys.

Finally, I will finish on the other bit of the motion, on the cost of passports. Yes, as you said, the No. 1 priority is addressing cost-of-living pressures and providing targeted relief. The cost of passports, though, is indexed annually. This has been the case under successive governments over many years. But the point here is that we're modernising Australia's passport system so that Australia's passport remains a globally respected identity document. Right now, it's equal fifth on the list of the most secure passports in the world. It has to remain secure. We have to continue to invest more in maintaining the security of Australia's passport system, because for many Australians their passport is their primary-source identity document, and that security gives Australians visa-free access to over 180 countries. The cost of a passport over its 10 year life is less than $1 a week.

Keith Wolahan (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion is about the unacceptable increases in passport fees and processing times. Let's be clear: this isn't a conversation or debate about a luxury item. For families, particularly families with relatives overseas, we are talking of a necessity.

Deputy Speaker, I want you to imagine a family of four—two children and two parents—on a close-to-average income. The average income is getting closer to $100,000, so let's round it up, to make a combined family income of $200,000. That family, in the last 20 months, has seen the cost of groceries rise by nine per cent and the cost of housing increase by 12 per cent. If they have an average mortgage of $750,000, that's an increase in their mortgage payments of $22,000 after tax, and if you're on an average income that is very hard to find from other sources. They've seen the cost of electricity go up by 22 per cent and the cost of gas go up by 27 per cent. Insurance rates have hit record highs. I want you to imagine that family of four. For people in electorates like mine—where 70 per cent of residents are first- or second-generation migrants, as am I—there is often a good news story where a relative is getting married and you're invited. Or there's often a short-term tragedy, where you find out that a loved one—a parent or a grandparent—has died and you're asked to go to the funeral. Often, those are urgent requests that need urgent processing. For many families in my electorate, processing fees for a family of four require an urgent application, and that has an even increased fee. Many may not be aware of what those fees are: looking at the fees for a family of four, with the 1 July increase the $290 processing fee for a 10-year adult passport will cost $688. With two parents and then a child's passport, which is $201—and only lasts for five years, so they have to be renewed more often—we're talking about an urgent fee of $1,778.

Just imagine that you're a family of four in my electorate; you're struggling as it is and your parent or grandparent has passed away. You're trying to rush home to comfort your loved ones and to say your final goodbyes. For a family of four who have to go to Athens, an economy return airfare is about $14,000. To go to Hong Kong, it's just under $5,000. For those going to Rome, it's just over $10,000, economy return, and for those going to Mumbai it's just under $8,000. Then, on top of that, this government is asking you to pay $1,788 to process a document that allows you to do that.

This government likes to talk about its stage 3 tax cuts and how it's giving an average family like that $800. Of course we support that, because it's needed. But with this hand, $800 dollars is being given and with this hand $8,000 dollars is being taken away in loss of real income. Australians are doing it tough, and this manifests itself at the checkout in the grocery store, it manifests itself when they look at the utility bills that they have to pay and it manifests themselves when they look at the $22,000 in extra mortgage payments they have to find after tax. For families in electorates like mine, and in many metro areas in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, a $750,000 mortgage doesn't get you much—it doesn't—so they're paying a lot more than that extra $22,000 increase. Then, on top of that, when their heart is broken and they have to go and say their final goodbyes, they're being slugged with this unacceptable increase.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the member for Menzies, I came to this place in mid-2022. There was a lot that I would have expected to be part of the job: contributing to national policy discourse, perhaps formulating some of the policy, connecting with our communities and, of course, helping people navigate through the NDIS, Medicare and other government services. I didn't expect to be completely and utterly inundated with people crying out for help to get a simple document, their passport, renewed. After our office opened we received email after email and phone call after phone call from people who were desperate to get their passports to be able to go overseas. My office was bombarded with stories of people who had been waiting for months, some needing passports within 24-hours just to be able to visit their loved ones.

Marilyn Psao, a devoted mother, applied for her children's passports in June, eager to embark on a long-awaited family trip. Little did she know that her joy would soon turn to anxiety as normal passport processing times were eclipsed and her wait for passports went from weeks and weeks into months. She was lucky, because our office was able to help her. But there were many who missed those deadlines, who lost money and who were unable to see sick relatives. The stress of this situation weighed heavily on Marilyn, and it complicated a process that should have been quick and easy.

Imeylda found herself facing the race against time as she desperately sought to obtain her passport to visit her sick father overseas. The fear of missing out on her precious moments with her loved ones was really a weight on her shoulders. The member for Menzies cited very similar stories in his speech just then but failed to acknowledge the absolute basket case that was the Australian Passport Office left by the former government. Imeylda was terrified that she would be unable to go overseas to bid farewell to her father in his time of need. Then there was Stephen and his whole family, who have been waiting since the pandemic to go overseas on a long trip. He was also stuck in the passport-processing debacle that was left by the Liberals. These aren't anecdotes. They are real stories, real emails, real phone calls to our office. These are just three examples of the scores of people across Bennelong and the thousands across the community who were let down by the former government's negligence. They, like many Australians, endured lengthy wait times, averaging 50 days at the peak of the backlog, a process that now takes a bit under four days.

The former Liberal government's failure to prioritise the processing of passports inflicted unnecessary suffering on ordinary Australians. This was the legacy that was left by the former government, and yet they have the gall today to put up a motion about a report that reviewed how terribly they had dealt with this predictable issue. That report laid bare the incompetence and disregard for proper planning characterised by the Liberals' 10 years in government. It reinforced what many of us already know—that the former government were more focused on themselves than doing their jobs. The report highlights the failure of the former government to prepare for the surge of demand upon the reopening of the borders. Despite warnings dating back to December 2020, the former government chose to ignore a very predictable uptick in passport applications. The member for Bruce put it very clearly before: when you close the borders, passports expire; when you open them again, people want to go overseas, and they want to renew their passports. The Passport Office warned the former government to do something about this and to employ more staff: 'You're going to get more applications.' They ignored it. Families were separated, individuals missed crucial life events, travellers incurred significant financial losses due to disrupted plans—all because the former government chose to ignore that advice. It was so predictable, yet they ignored it.

A recent documentary showed us how dysfunctional that government was and how they were more focused on looking at themselves than doing their jobs. Thankfully we've cleaned up the mess. It's what we were elected to do. Now, 94.9 per cent of routine passport applications are done within the target of 10 days, and the average processing time is now just 3.9 days.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to start by congratulating the now not quite so new member for Fadden for not only venturing into the foray of private members' business but also moving this motion. Sometimes you just have to cut your teeth on a motion regurgitated entirely from a media release a shadow minister sent to the whips. This media release was released earlier this month in light of the Australian National Audit Office having handed down a report on the Australian Passport Office. Between the ANAO report and the media release, only one acknowledged the border closures during the pandemic or the fact that those opposite were in government at the time, and only one provided evidence based commentary on how the Australian Passport Office was managed in that period of time. I'll give you two guesses as to which one did.

Passports in Australia have come a long way since Hugh Mahon, the minister responsible for regulating passports issued by the Australian government in the early days around 110 years ago—though the minister is probably more famous for being the first and only member of this place to have been expelled. But I might fast-forward to the years 2017 to 2023. During this time Australia, like most other parts of the world, grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. During the height of the pandemic, especially if you were an Australian, it was difficult to leave or enter Australia. The numbers are understandable, given the circumstances, but nonetheless staggering, with the Passport Office reporting the demand for their services being roughly 3½ times lower than the reported average prior to the border closures being implemented. Two point two million fewer passports were issued compared to the previous six quarters. With the uncertainty of the border closures, I can definitely understand the logic in the minds of the many Australians who opted not to renew their passports during that period. As a result, in that period between 30 and 40 per cent of the Passport Office workforce was redeployed to other areas, such as Services Australia.

While times were indeed uncertain, with the potential to become a new normal, it was an inevitable eventuality that the borders would reopen and passports would need to be issued again at a rate exponentially higher than the atrophied number we saw at the height of the COVID years. Why the Morrison government couldn't foresee this is just another example of their shambolic way of governing, which we are now all too familiar with. They don't stamp passports, mate! It is simply astounding that the then government didn't implement surge plans, despite receiving advice on how it would look prior to borders reopening. The report noted a submission from the CPSU, which noted its members were aware of a surge plan in development, but executive management disagreed with the plan. Even the engagement of Datacom to fill gaps and provide a surge workforce did not occur until May 2022, several months after the border reopened. By that time even vacant positions within the Passport Office's regular staffing levels remained unfilled.

The Morrison government here, and in so many other areas, had turned Australian into the nation of procrastination when it came to rolling out plans for the pandemic, during the pandemic and after the pandemic. In the time since I was elected to this place, I have been proud to have my office work alongside DFAT and the Passport Office for many constituents who faced some tight calls to process their passports. At its peak, the Morrison Liberal government's mismanagement on passports caused wait times to blow out to an average of 50 days. Thankfully, we have now taken that average wait time down to 3.9 days. It's no mean feat to train a new workforce on the job. I can only imagine how stressful it was for everyone working there at the time, especially with many coming back from secondments in Services Australia.

Just because the Liberal and National parties devalued our Passport Office does not reflect how this government feels about the vital work they do, and it certainly does not mean that an Australian passport should be devalued in the same way either. After taking office, the Albanese Labor government immediately started to enact plans to train up a surge workforce that, frankly, was well over a year overdue. In addition to this, the government rolled out the R series passport, the world's most secure type of passport—something that was put on ice by the former government during the pandemic. We have a passport that is now the fifth most secure in the entire world, giving Australians visa-free access to travel to over 180 countries.

In closing, I want to personally thank our people in the Passport Office and DFAT for all their hard work and everything that they do in assisting the people within our electorates to ensure that they get to go on their way and travel across this great world. Thank you very much.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.