Senator O’BRIEN (1:41 PM) —Labor supports this bill to amend the Consular Privileges and Immunities Act 1972 to expand the range of consular privileges and immunities that can be afforded to foreign consular officials in Australia above and beyond those provided under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The act gives legislative force to the Vienna convention in Australia. The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations together with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations are multilateral treaties ratified in the 1960s which codify centuries of international customary law and practice on diplomatic and consular relations between states.

The conventions set out the functions of diplomatic and consular missions and officials and a range of privileges and immunities which diplomatic and consular officials are to be afforded by the receiving state. The preambles of both conventions clearly state that the purpose of such privileges and immunities is not to benefit individual officers but to ensure the efficient performance of the functions of diplomatic and consular missions in the territory of the receiving state. That is firmly Labor’s view. Labor supports the granting of privileges and immunities as a means of facilitating smooth and efficient international relations rather than a means of conferring any form of personal advantage on consular or diplomatic officials working in Australia.

Similarly, Labor is strongly of the view that Australian consular and diplomatic officials must not abuse their position as a representative of the Australian government and misuse the privileges and immunities they enjoy overseas. We note that this bill relates only to consular privileges and immunities and not to diplomatic privileges and immunities. The bill aims to give flexibility to enter into agreements with other states to grant privileges and immunities to consular officers above and beyond those provided for in the consular convention on a reciprocal basis. Article 73(2) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations envisages that bilateral agreements may be made between states to supplement, extend or amplify the provisions of the consular convention. Labor acknowledges that it is therefore arguable that the government already has the power to grant such enhanced privileges and immunities. We welcome the move through this bill to clarify and make transparent the use of that power and we welcome the fact that, in the process, the bill also restricts the use of the power to circumstances where Australia has entered into reciprocal arrangements with the country concerned.

Labor recognises the important role of consular officers in representing Australian interests overseas. The role of consular officers includes: issuing emergency passports or travel documents; providing assistance to Australian travellers in distress, for example, in the case of an accident, serious illness or death; arranging for the next of kin in Australia to be notified when something goes wrong; providing assistance to Australian travellers who are arrested overseas; conducting prison visits for Australians detained overseas; and providing assistance during emergencies, such as natural disasters and civil uprisings.

Labor congratulates Australian consular officials on their outstanding performance, often under intense pressure in recent years—in particular the consular response to the Bali bombings on 12 October 2002, the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 and the most recent Bali bombings only two weeks ago. With the number of Australians travelling overseas increasing each year—in 1996, there were 2.7 million short-term international departures by Australian residents and by 2004 this had increased to 4.4 million—it is not surprising that this has led to an increase in demand for consular services and has increased the pressure on our hardworking consular officers.

What is surprising, however, is that over that period DFAT staffing levels decreased by 29 per cent, and what we saw in the most recent budget papers confirmed that consular staff are likely to continue to remain under pressure. Despite the raft of difficult consular cases that have come to public attention in the past year—including the response to the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Schapelle Corby case, the Bali nine and Michelle Leslie cases in Indonesia and the Dobbins case in Costa Rica—there has been an increase in staffing of just four staff for outcome 2 in the DFAT budget, which includes consular and passports services.

With the introduction of the new ePassport it is likely that what extra staff there will be under outcome 2 will be taken up on the passports side of the equation. Labor welcomes any extra staffing resources for passports operations in the department because Labor has recently raised concerns about the security of the Australian passport system. While Mr Downer told Lateline on 28 April 2005 that 2,000 missing Australian passports was ‘a tiny number’, we do not agree. It appears Mr Downer is spending too much time jockeying for the deputy leadership of the Liberal Party and not enough time focusing on the core responsibilities of his department.

Information obtained by Labor confirms that up to 2,500 Australian passports remain unaccounted for as they have not reached their intended destination by post. Labor has been able to establish through parliamentary questions on notice that over 1,000 Australian passports remain unaccounted for in the past three years alone. On 31 December 1997, Mr Downer dropped the requirement that his department send out Australian passports by registered post. We can confirm that between 31 December 1997 and 22 July 2002—when Mr Downer reinstated the requirement to use registered post—at least 2,042 passports were recorded as missing and, at the time of our receipt of the question on notice, 1,435 remain unaccounted for.

In the 2003-04 financial year, 1,302 Australian passports were recorded as missing and, of those, 1,076 remain unaccounted for as of February this year. This comes on top of the disclosure from DFAT yesterday that one of the Bali nine was employed in the Sydney passports office in 2000 and the news that Indonesian authorities are now claiming that some of the Bali nine were using multiple passports.

Mr Downer talks about national security all the time, but security first and foremost begins at home. As a matter of urgency, Labor calls on Mr Downer to tell the Australian public what has happened to the 2,500 Australian passports that remain unaccounted for and whether it is possible that any of these passports could have been used for improper purposes in support of transnational crime. We will support this legislation.