Mr RUDD (2:53 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister advise the House as to the feasibility of a proposal by the opposition—the subject of correspondence between me and the minister just before question time—that in future the Australian travel industry be required at the time of booking to disseminate the core content of travel advisories to Australians travelling abroad and to direct them as to how to obtain the full text of those travel advisories prior to departure? Can the minister also advise the House as to his response to our proposal that measures be put in place to improve the dissemination of embassy bulletins for Australians travelling in countries of concern or Australians living in those countries?

Mr DOWNER (Minister for Foreign Affairs) —I thank the honourable member for his question. He did advise my office before question time that he was going to ask the question. I have not yet received the letter, so I have not been able to read it. But let me just say, in a broad sense, that over the last two or three years my department has made a particular effort to try to improve the accessibility of travel advisories, and some of the statistics are illustrative of that. Obviously since the Bali tragedy things have changed dramatically, but prior to the Bali tragedy my department's web site was averaging 85,000 hits per week for travel advisories, and that was up from only 30,000 hits per week prior to 11 September 2001. So there has been a substantial improvement in the use, if you like, of the Internet access to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade web site and to the travel advisories on it.

Nevertheless, the department has also been working over the last couple of years to ensure that the travel advisories are better disseminated to travel agents, airlines and the like. After 12 October, I did say to my department, `We still need to ask ourselves whether sufficient numbers of people read travel advisories,' and the honourable member is really getting to the heart of that point with his question and suggestions. Last week, I asked the department to give consideration to whether it is practical to expand the scope of the dissemination of travel advisories. There are a lot of different options you could consider there. I might mention, for the interest of the House, some of the options that could be implemented by the government, although we have made no decisions—and I will look at the honourable member's letter to see what he suggests in that and how practical those suggestions are as well.

I will give four examples. The first is the placement of touch screen kiosks providing travel advice at airports and other locations frequented by prospective Australian travellers. It strikes me that when you go into the international terminal at an Australian airport—and you can rest assured that that is something I do fairly often—there is no sign of travel advisories. They are not there. So, on the face of it, as I said to the department, it would make a lot of sense for travel advisories to be made available in international terminals. Their suggestion that this could be done through touch screens is, I think, quite a good idea.

The second idea being considered is convenience advertising, in which the department takes out advertising space in places like airport bathrooms and toilet facilities, travel sections of newspapers and so on. Thirdly, since passports are frequently obtained through post offices, consideration is being given to advertising in post offices. Fourthly, consideration is also being given to negotiating with post offices—or with another national network—to provide copies of travel advisories on request.

This is a live issue for the government. It is something we need to consider. I will have a look at the ideas put forward by the honourable member, because it would be good if there were a simple, really effective way of getting travel advisories out to everyone. Travel agents get them, but they make the decision as to whether or not they show those travel advisories to people who go into travel agents to book their tickets. Nowadays a lot of people get electronic tickets, as do many of us in this House. You go to the check-in desk and you are just given a boarding pass after showing identification. You show your passport and answer a few questions about your luggage, but no travel advisory is provided in those circumstances. Is it practical to have them provided there? These are the sorts of issues we are having a look at.