I just paid $400 for a new passport and it’s already damaged

My passport has developed a curl. I only picked it up the day before and left it on my desk overnight. This morning, the front cover has a wave-like bend; it looks like it’s doing a tricky yoga pose, and really, you’d expect something better, wouldn’t you? Given I’m supposed to take good care of my passport.

I paid $400 … this morning it looks like it’s doing a yoga pose.Credit: Michael Gebicki

The passports.gov.au website FAQ section notes that “slight curling” can result from “changes in humidity”. It supposedly doesn’t affect the validity of the travel document, though an injunction on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website warns: “Be careful to not bend the cover back or you could damage the stitching that holds the passport together.”

But really, is this the best DFAT can do, considering this is the world’s most expensive passport?

When I applied in December 2024, the cost was $398. If I applied in January 2025, the cost would have jumped another $14. It’s also the only passport that increases in price annually, adjusted on the first day of January to match the annual CPI.

Over the past year, the cost of an Aussie passport has galloped by almost 20 per cent. In January 2024, a 10-year Australian passport cost $346. Then, in a one-off mid-year price hike, the government jacked up the cost of a 10-year passport to $398 on July 1, 2024.

At the time, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said, “This one-off increase is all about making sure that we can resource our passport systems and make them modern and fit for purpose.”

Based on the government’s figures for the number of passports issued, that increase of $52 in the cost of a passport would have added another $65 million to the Canberra coffers in the year between July 1, 2024 and December 31.

Issuing passports is a lucrative business for the Australian government. In 2023-24, the passport office issued more than 2.5 million passports. Assuming those figures remain consistent, its passport office will earn the government more than $1 billion in financial year 2024-25.

“One of the world’s most secure and beautiful travel documents” … the R Series Passport.Credit:

This is what some other countries charge for renewing a 10-year passport:

• New Zealand $NZ215 ($194)
• United States $US130 ($209)
• United Kingdom £88.50 ($175) for online applications, £100 ($197) for a paper submission
• Switzerland $248, if it’s obtained in Australia

A Singapore passport, which is the best in the world according to the number of countries the passport holder can visit without a visa, costs $S70 ($82) for applications either online or by post, or $S80 ($94) for applications submitted over the counter at the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority in Singapore or at a Singapore Overseas Mission.

What do you get for your money?

The document includes UV visible printing and holograms, and invisible printing that fluoresces strongly.Credit:

According to the Australian Passport Office, the current R Series “combines visual elements and advanced technologies to make it one of the world’s most secure and beautiful travel documents”. My current UK passport, from the series introduced in 2015-16, the last of the red-cover passports, also has advanced visual elements and security features, such as a thin film patch on the second page that is clear in colour but has UV visible printing and holograms, and invisible printing of the laminated information page that fluoresces strongly. Does our government expect us to believe the UK passport, which costs less than half the price of its Australian counterpart, is less secure than our own? Also, it has more pages than my Australian passport and its front cover doesn’t curl – the famous British stiff upper lip.

In an audit published in February 2024, the Auditor-General took the Passport Office to task, reporting that “the average cost to produce a passport has increased more than the increase in the price of labour; and staff efficiency, which was improving up until the COVID-19 pandemic, has deteriorated since the international border was reopened”.

How useful is the Australian passport?

The Henley Passport Index is a measure of the world’s passports, based on the number of countries a nation’s passport holder can enter without a visa. According to the 2025 index, the Australian passport sits in sixth place, alongside Greece. New Zealand passport holders are one step higher up the ladder, along with holders of British, Portuguese, Swiss and Belgian passports. At the top of the tree is Singapore’s passport, which allows nationals to enter 195 countries without a visa. I’m happy with the 189 countries that my Aussie passport allows me to visit without a visa, but the cost is outrageous, and I’d like one with covers that don’t curl.