Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have a very deep connection with the United States. We have a political connection; they're one of the oldest continuing democracies. We have business connections, diplomatic connections and government connections through our military and intelligence agencies, but we also have a deep connection to the United States with people-to-people links. I say this from personal experience with my own family, my wife being an American and my three children being dual citizens. We travel to the US frequently, like many Australians. We're going to see more and more travel to the United States over the coming decade, particularly with AUKUS as we build out our industrial base, share technology and embed Australians with the United States military enterprise. Tourism is something that will continue—we see a lot of sporting connections and travel through that—and our industry, of course.

We want to work out ways we can make that travel a little easier, which is why the US Global Entry program is important. That's why this bill, the AusCheck Amendment (Global Entry Program) Bill 2025, expands Australia's participation in the US Global Entry program. What is the program? Eligible citizens of trusted partner countries can have access to faster entry and US passports, and we want to make this available to Australians and make life easier for them. This bill amends the AusCheck Act 2007 to establish the legislative basis for the fulfilment of Australia's background-checking obligations under the United States Global Entry program. When implemented, the Global Entry program will allow Australians access to expedited immigration and Customs channels when entering the United States. The bill achieves this objective by expanding the regulation-making power in the AusCheck Act to allow for the expansion of the AusCheck scheme for the purpose of GEP background checks.

To make this happen, the bill also makes a number of consequential and supporting amendments to the AusCheck Act, including new definitions in subsection 4(1) of the act to support the amendments relating to GEP background checks; amending the existing definition of 'AusCheck scheme personal information' to include information obtained by an agency for the purposes of GEP background checks; amending the definition of 'background check' in section 5 of the act to expand the types of background checks permissible under the AusCheck scheme for the GEP, which also includes a check for certain offences under the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982, which will meet the USA's eligibility criteria for the program; and finally, inserting a new section, 10AB, in the AusCheck Act which provides a regulation-making power to prescribe the matters in regulation that are to be covered by the AusCheck scheme when conducting background checks in connection with the GEP.

We support the policy intent of this bill. Very simply, we want Australians to have a better experience at the other end of their journey to the United States with expedited entry through Customs in the United States. Streamlined travel arrangements will benefit frequent travellers to the United States and promote better business linkages and people-to-people links.

The strategic background to this is AUKUS, a massive, multigenerational nation-building endeavour that will see a lot of people coming from and going to the US. I think it's really important that we start streamlining our military, our industrial base and our government to support this, but also arrangements like this will really facilitate those people-to-people movements.

I want to recognise the important work of staff at the Department of Home Affairs, who have been working on this important reform for many years. It's good to see this work finally coming to fruition. I note this bill was only introduced to the House yesterday, so we are still working through the detail. We will ensure the bill is fit for purpose in achieving its stated objectives.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.