2.1.1 Consular services
Quality indicators
- Satisfaction of the public and travel industry with consular services
- Extent to which highly developed crisis management procedures are in place and tested
- Client satisfaction with the suitability and effectiveness of contingency plans at overseas posts
- Response time to consular issues
Quantity indicators
- Number of Australians assisted overseas, including the number of public inquiries handled, notarial acts performed and travel advisories issued
- Number of unexpected events or crises handled by the department, number of associated departmental Emergency Task Force and Inter-Departmental Emergency Task Force meetings held, and the duration of Crisis Centre operations
Satisfaction of the public and the travel industry
The department, through its network of overseas posts, helps Australians in trouble overseas. The department's Consular Services Charter signifies our commitment to delivering effective, prompt and courteous service in an equitable way to all Australians as well as our obligation to protecting their privacy in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988. Client feedback on our consular and information services is, for the most part, positive. As part of our continuous improvement program, and consistent with a recommendation by the Australian National Audit Office, we are developing our complaints handling mechanism, which will be introduced in the second half of 2004.
We received 363 952 public inquiries in 2003–04, a fall of 15 per cent from 2002–03. There was increased interest from people seeking information before they travel—one of the main aims of the smartraveller public information campaign.
In Canberra, we received 50 letters and emails commenting positively on services provided for particular consular cases and on our information service. We received a further 400 letters and emails containing general inquiries. This represents a fall of 55 per cent from 2002–03, which was dominated by correspondence on the Bali bombings and the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus.
We received 68 items of correspondence expressing either dissatisfaction or misunderstandings about elements of our service. The majority of this correspondence related to our travel advice. This reflected, in part, the greater public awareness of travel advice generated by the smartraveller public information campaign. Some clients expressed dissatisfaction about navigating the website. In all instances, we responded to complaints after investigating the concerns and, where warranted, have taken corrective action. Following a comprehensive review, we redesigned our smartraveller webpages to take account of a number of issues raised by clients.
The department's relations with the travel industry were strengthened during the year. We worked closely with the industry through the voluntary government–industry Charter for Safe Travel, which now extends to over 1150 industry participants. We established a 'smartraveller Consultative Committee' to: review implementation of the goals of the Charter for Safe Travel; channel industry and traveller feedback on the smartraveller campaign; and discuss the presentation and dissemination of travel advice.
We received positive feedback on our training for travel agents in Sydney and Melbourne and Branch managers from the Student Travel Association (STA). Peak travel bodies commended the department for our program of consultations on issues related to travel advice and the safety of Australian travellers, including attendance at eleven travel industry expositions. The Australian Federation of Travel Agents strongly endorsed both the content and reach of our public information activities in support of the smartraveller campaign. The Eastern Mediterranean Tourism Association described the department's dialogue with the travel industry as 'groundbreaking'.
We commissioned market research on the impact of the smartraveller campaign. Results indicated that:
- 88 per cent of respondents were satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the information provided on the smartraveller.gov.au web site
- a significant majority of travellers (60–80 per cent) intended to access travel advice during the year. (This was borne out by an increase in web site views to 270 000 per week in 2003–2004)
- 40–55 per cent of respondents said smartraveller.gov.au was the best source of up-to-date information on their overseas destination
- 92 per cent of respondents said the smartraveller advertisements contained useful information
- 90 per cent of travel agents reported that they encouraged customers to access travel advice.
Consular crises and crisis management
The department manages responses to crises through its Emergency Task Force, an Inter-departmental Emergency Task Force (IDETF) and the department's Crisis Centre. In 2003–04 the IDETF met on six occasions—in response to the hostage taking in Manila in July 2003 and the Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta in August 2003.
The Crisis Centre was activated on two occasions for a total of five days during 2003–2004 to manage the Government's response to the hostage taking incident in Manila and the Marriott bombing in Jakarta. The IDETF mechanism was tested in August 2003 for a hostage-taking training exercise to ensure staff were prepared in the event of another crisis.
We responded to a number of major consular events including:
- terrorist bombings in Mumbai, India—August 2003
- a bus crash in Scotland—September 2003
- detentions in Aceh—September 2003
- civil unrest in Bolivia—October 2003
- terrorist threats in Indonesia—October 2003
- a ferry accident New York—October 2003
- continuing Maoist activity in Nepal—October 2003
- floods in Sumatra—November 2003
- continuing terrorist attacks in Iraq
- terrorist bombings in Istanbul—November 2003
- a hostage situation in Nigeria—November 2003
- an outbreak of avian influenza in Asia—January 2004
- a plane crash Uzbekistan—January 2004
- civil unrest in Southern Thailand—January 2004
- cyclone Ivy in New Caledonia—March 2004
- terrorist attacks in Madrid—March 2004
- terrorist bombings in Ankara—April 2004
- terrorist bombings in Riyadh—April 2004
- an anarchist attack in Athens—May 2004
- a terrorist threat against foreign interests in Sulawesi, Indonesia—May 2004
- the security situation in Pakistan—May 2004
- terrorist attacks involving Australians in Saudi Arabia—May 2004
- an assault on the Australian Honorary Consul in Colombia—May 2004
- a plane crash in Indonesia—June 2004
- a hostage situation in Jamaica—June 2004.
During the year, we handled more than 145 high-profile consular cases and upgraded our travel advice where concerns were held for the welfare of Australians overseas. The department exceeded the 'best practice' benchmark for issuing travel advisories set by the Australian National Audit Office (quarterly review of each advice). We carefully scrutinised and updated our travel advisories in response to changing security environments. A number of travel advisories were updated on several occasions to advise Australians of changing security environments, including Indonesia (14 issues), Saudi Arabia (10 issues), Philippines (eight issues) and Iraq (8 issues).
Suitability and effectiveness of contingency plans at overseas posts
During the year, we conducted an audit of all contingency plans to ensure they were up-to-date. We introduced a more formal mechanism for critical evaluation of post contingency plans, which provides clearer and more consistent feedback to posts on the quality of their plans. We continued our efforts to improve contingency planning—developing a number of event-specific plans for occasions where Australians were expected to gather in numbers. In the lead up to the Olympic Games in Athens we established a consultative committee involving other government and non-government agencies with a stake in contingency planning arrangements, including the Australian Olympic and Paralympic Committees.
Client satisfaction with plans was consistently high:
- the contingency plan we developed for the first anniversary memorial service for the victims of the Bali bombings plan was commended by Centrelink, the Australian Federal Police, the Department of Defence and other agencies involved in planning the event
- we developed a specific contingency plan for Anzac Day commemorations in Turkey, which was commended by the departments of Defence and Veterans Affairs and security and intelligence agencies.
Response time to consular issues
The department's consular operations are structured to allow immediate response to consular cases and international crises. Australians within Australia have free call access to assistance 24 hours a day for seven days a week. Outside the opening hours of their nearest consular post, Australians overseas have free-call or reverse-charge access to assistance from our 24âÄ‘hour Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra or to local consular duty officers. We have enhanced our emergency call unit facilities through new telephone technology allowing us to monitor queues more precisely and divert calls appropriately to help ensure our clients receive assistance in a timely manner.
The ability of the department to respond promptly to incidents in which Australians were injured or killed overseas was demonstrated on a number of occasions during the year. In September 2003, the high commission in London responded promptly following the crash of a bus in Scotland in which a number of Australians were injured, some seriously. London despatched three consular officers within the day, one each to the hospitals where the injured Australians were transferred and one to the site of the crash where welcome support was provided to survivors.
In many locations where the department is not represented, we engage the assistance of consular partner governments—particularly Canada, with which we have a formal consular sharing agreement—and other government agencies that may be better placed to respond quickly. Our ability to respond promptly to situations in countries where we have no representation was demonstrated by our response to the murder of an Australian in Afghanistan, which presented particular challenges for our post in Islamabad. Working with US authorities in Afghanistan, our post tasked Australian defence officials to ensure the safe return of his remains to Australia. We registered through our embassy in Washington our interest in the progress of the investigation into his murder.
Quantity information for output 2.1: consular services
| Indicator | 2003–04 | 2002–03 |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Australians assisted overseas: | ||
| Consular cases1 | 12 946 | 19 196 |
| Public inquiries2 | 363 952 | 430 349 |
| Notarial acts performed3 | 87 545 | 73 514 |
| Travel advice notices issued | 527 | 593 |
| Number of unexpected events or crises handled by the department | 26 | 39 |
| Number of associated departmental Emergency Task Force and Inter-departmental Emergency Task Force meetings held | 6 | 129 |
| Duration of Crisis Centre operations | 5 days | 39 days |
1 These statistics refer to inquiries about actual cases at posts and do not include general inquiries on non-case-related consular matters (eg travel advice). These are now reported under public inquiries.
2 Public inquiries include inquiries on non-case-related matters made at overseas posts and through the 1300 and 1800 call numbers in Australia.
3 These figures include notarial acts performed at overseas posts, in Canberra and in state and territory offices.
2.1.2 Passport services
Quality indicators
- Satisfaction of the public and travel industry with passport services Turnaround time for passport issue, including urgent issues
Quantity indicators
- Number of passport inquiries handled by the Australian Passport Information Service Number of travel documents issued, including urgent issues
Satisfaction of the public and the travel industry
Feedback from clients on the quality of passport services indicated that 91.7 per cent of all customers surveyed were satisfied with the service they received and indicates that a high level of service was maintained despite the considerable challenges posed by the rollout of the new passport and a substantial increase in demand.
A successful information campaign was undertaken both in Australia and overseas to explain changes in the passport production arrangements to the travelling public. This campaign included writing to travel agents in Australia, running video clips in all passport offices, addressing key groups overseas and advising those Australians registered with Australian missions.
The priority processing service that allows customers to pay an additional fee to ensure their passport is issued within a 48-hour timeframe again proved popular and demand for this service rose by 35 per cent to 173 893.
Turnaround time for passport issue
Passport application rates in 2003–04 rose by 16.6 per cent over the previous year. This increase in issue rates—together with a major re-engineering of the passport-issuing process—placed considerable pressures on passport offices. As a result, the turnaround time in 2003–04 increased from an average of 6.7 days to 9.4 days. While this remained within the ten-day turnaround time outlined in the Client Service Charter, the majority of complaints received concerned delays in receiving passports.
The number of travel documents issued in 2003–04 was 1 086 366—up 16.6 percent over the previous year (906 049).
- 173 893 customers took the option of paying the priority processing fee to have their travel document issued within 48 hours compared to 112 525 last year. Of these, 651 were refunded on compassionate grounds and 197 because the 48-hour standard was not met.
- Emergency passports were introduced overseas in December 2003 with 3981 documents issued during the remainder of the year.
- 33 954 passports were reported lost or stolen compared to 32 479 last year.
- 319 cases of passport fraud were detected compared to 535 last year. The decline in numbers relates to the fact that 199 additional cases were investigated in 2002–03 as a result of a 'back wash' operation conducted with the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
The Australian Passport Information Service (APIS) provides advice and assistance to the public on all passport matters seven days a week. The centre handled 1 496 907 calls in 2003–04, an increase of 33 per cent from the previous year. All APIS contract performance indicators were met for the year. Arrangements are in place to expand the APIS network to handle passport calls from Australians resident in New Zealand.
Quantity information for output 2.1: passport services
| Indicator | 2003–04 | 2002–03 |
|---|---|---|
| Number of passport inquiries handled by the Australian Passport Information Service1 | 1 496 907 | 1 123 133 |
| Number of travel documents issued, including urgent issues2 | 1 086 366 | 906 049 |
1. The increase in the number of inquiries handled reflects a catch-up in demand following the substantial drop experienced after the tragic events of 11 September 2001, the Bali bombings and the outbreak of SARS.
2. Travel documents include passports, documents of identity, certificates of identity and convention travel documents.
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Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Annual Report 2003–2004
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