Australia Yearbook - 2001

100 Year Book Australia 2001
3.2 AUSTRALIA-BASED DFAT STAFF OVERSEAS, By Region—January 2000
no.
200
150
100
50
0
NZ/South
Pacific
Mid
East/Africa
Nth Asia Sth/S-E Asia Europe The Americas
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Services to the Australian
community
The principal international services provided to
the Australian community are consular and
passport services provided by the Department
of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The department
provides 24-hour consular and passport services
to Australians travelling overseas and their
families in Australia through its network of
overseas missions and honorary consulates, a
consular operations centre and consular
cooperation arrangements with other countries.
These services include assisting Australians who
are hospitalised, imprisoned or require welfare
assistance overseas; helping family members
when Australian travellers die or go missing; and,
when required, coordinating evacuations from
international trouble spots. Consular services are
now available to Australians at 152 points
world-wide. Through media briefings and
regularly updated travel advisories, Australian
travellers are kept informed about international
developments, including potential trouble spots,
and the extent to which the Australian
Government can assist them. The department
is also responsible for implementing bilateral
consular agreements with Canada and China.
The department is responsible for providing
secure travel documents to eligible Australians
under the authority of the Passports Act 1938.
Passport services are provided through passport
offices located in Australia’s major cities and
diplomatic and consular missions overseas.
Access to passport information is available
through the Australian Passport Information
Service, which operates seven days a week
including after hours, and interview services are
provided through Australia Post and its network
of 1,600 outlets throughout Australia. While
Australia is already a world leader in providing
secure passport services, the department is
working to improve the service still further.
As graph 3.3 shows, in 1999–2000 an estimated
3.3 million Australians travelled abroad (a 3.3%
increase from 1998–99), and DFAT issued
1.14 million passports (an increase of 5.4% from
the previous year). During 1999–2000 the
department provided consular assistance to
20,741 Australians in difficulty (a 3% increase
from the previous year) and notarial services to a
further 45,420 Australians. Graph 3.4 shows the
number of Australians travelling, by broad region
of destination, in 1998–99.
Public information services
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
provides a wide range of information services to
the Australian public, and promotes Australia and
Australians overseas. The department’s public
diplomacy objectives are to ensure that
Australians are kept informed about Australia’s
foreign and trade policies, and have the
opportunity to contribute to them, and to
promote an accurate, positive and up-to-date
image of Australia internationally.