Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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PASSPORTS AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2004 (NO. 1) 2004 NO. 144

Subsection 12(1) of the Passports Act 1938 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary and convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act, and in particular (under paragraph 12(1)(c)) for prescribing the fees to be charged in respect of the issue, renewal or endorsement of passports.

These Regulations amend the Passports Regulations 1939 to effect a slight increase to the fees payable for the issue of Australian passports, Certificates of Identity, Documents of Identity and Convention Travel Documents (Titres de Voyage).

The increase reflected in the proposed Regulations is in accordance with a practice, followed since 1992, that fees for travel documents under the Act should be subject to increase each 1 July in line with the movement in the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the preceding twelve months. Fees for other travel documents are calculated as a fixed percentage of the increased fee for an ordinary adult passport.

The CPI rose 2.0% between the March 2003 quarter and the March 2004 quarter. The 2.0% increase would be applied to the price for ordinary 32-page and 64-page adult passports, and to the priority processing fee, rounded down to the nearest whole dollar amount. The fees for 32-page and 64-page ordinary passports for a prescribed minor or a person aged at least 75 years of age are calculated as 50% of the relevant increased fee for adult passports. The fees for the issue of a Certificate of Identity and a Convention Travel Document are calculated as 60% of the increased fee for an ordinary 32-page adult passport. It is not proposed to increase the fees for a number of lower cost documents and services as the application of the 2.0% CPI increase would result in only a marginal increase to the fees. The documents and services for which fees would not be increased are adding an observation after the issue of a passport, issue of a Document of Identity and the renewal of a Certificate of Identity, a Document of Identity or a Convention Travel Document. The fees were last increased by Regulations which commenced on 1 July 2003.

Details of the Regulations are set out in the Attachment.

The Regulations commence on 1 July 2004.

Attachment

DETAILS OF THE PROPOSED PASSPORTS AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2004 (No. 1)

Regulation 1 names the Regulations as the Passports Amendment Regulations 2004 (No. 1).

Regulation 2 provides that the Regulations commence on 1 July 2004.

Regulation 3 provides that the Passports Regulations 1939 are amended as set out in Schedule 1.

Schedule 1 increases the fees for the issue of Passports and other travel documents (such as Certificates and Documents of Identity) according to the following table:

Col 1 Item	Column 2 Matter	Column 3 Present Fee	Proposed Fee
1	Issue to a person (other than a prescribed minor) of an Australian passport of 32 pages (including a diplomatic or official passport).	148	150
2	Issue to a prescribed minor of an Australian passport of 32 pages (including a diplomatic or official passport).	74	75
3	Issue to a person aged at least 75 years of an Australian passport of 32 pages to be valid for not more than 5 years (including a diplomatic or official passport).	74	75
4	Issue to a person (other than a prescribed minor) of an Australian passport of 64 pages.	222	226
5	Issue to a prescribed minor of an Australian passport of 64 pages.	111	113
6	Issue to a person aged at least 75 years of an Australian passport of 64 pages to be valid for not more than 5 years (including a diplomatic or official passport).	111	113
7	Observation made after the issue of a passport.	11	11
8	Issue of a certificate of identity.	89	90
9	Issue of a document of identity.	30	30
10	Renewal of a certificate of identity.	11	11
11	Renewal of a document of identity.	11	11
12	Issue of a convention travel document.	89	90
13	Renewal of a convention travel document.	9	9
14	Priority processing fee.	62	63