Federal Budget 2024: ‘Fast-track’ passport processing in five days for an extra $100
A regular passport takes up to six weeks and costs $346. Would you pay $100 more to get one in five days? The government is betting 50,000 people a year will.
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The government will create a new “fast-track” passport processing service that will deliver travel documents in five days — for an extra $100 per document.
The budget shows the government expect to raise $27.4 million over five years through the speedier service, which will begin in July.
That suggests more than 200 people a day will apply for the fast-track, or over 50,000 per year.
A standard 10-year passports costs $346 and is typically delivered in six weeks.
Using this fast-track processing service will therefore raise the cost to $446.
It will not be the fastest way to get a passport.
A two-day “priority processing” facility already exists, which costs an additional $252, bringing the total price to $598 per document.
An extraordinary 400,000 people paid for priority processing in 2022-23.
It’s possible that was an unusually high figure, given many travellers were worried about being caught up in the lengthy delays that ensued once Covid lockdowns ended.
What is clear is that passport service revenue is experiencing a post pandemic boom.
It is set to bring in $390m in 2023-24 and $394m next financial year, before dropping back to $307m in 2025-26.
The money raised from the new fast-track processing service “will be directed to support priorities in the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolio,” the budget papers say, without explaining what those priorities are.
The Department of Foreign Affairs processes about 3.1 million passports every year.
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