Every Assistance & Protection: A History of the Australian Passport – Foreign Minister launches book and exhibition
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Stephen Smith, launched a book entitled Every Assistance and Protection: A History of the Australian Passport and a related exhibition on 10 November.
Every Assistance and Protection traces the fascinating story of Australia’s passport as a reflection of the country’s political and social history, and the relationship of the passport to Australian identity. It also highlights Australia’s role at the forefront of international efforts to develop technologies which have enhanced the security of travel documents and therefore the security of Australia’s borders.
At the launch, Mr Smith noted the significant contribution made by the Australian Passport Office (APO) to the development of machine-readable passports and biometric technology which saw the introduction of Australia’s ePassport in 2005.
In 2007-2008, the passport office issued more than 1.5 million passports to a population of approximately 21 million and there are more than 9.5 million Australian passport holders (about 45 per cent of the total population).
The average time to process passport applications is less than five days, well within the APO’s advertised ten working day service level.
The exhibition will be on display at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra until Friday 28 November 2008.