Calls for Australia’s paper incoming passenger card to be abolished

Australia is one of very few countries still requiring overseas visitors and returning residents to do this and it’s been described as a “total embarrassment”.

Filling in the arrivals card upon returning to Australia is a bit of a pain. In the era of smart gates and facial recognition technology, the whole in-flight chore feels decidedly dated.

In fact, Australia is one of very few countries still requiring overseas visitors and returning residents to fill out a piece of paper on entry.

Usually you’re half asleep and you can’t find a pen (that works). You have to look up your partner’s phone number as your emergency contact even though you’ve been together for years. You get to marvel at just how much your handwriting has deteriorated in recent years.

The paper incoming passenger card has been described as a ‘total embarrassment’. Picture: Escape

If this resonates, the news today that the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is demanding the federal government axe the incoming passenger card, saying it’s “an antiquated embarrassment to the Australian travel industry” may be music to your ears.

The Australian reports executive chairman of the Chamber’s tourism arm, John Hart, said the card was a “total embarrassment” that was likely to deter visitors from returning to Australia.

“We nearly got rid of it during Covid when they had the digital passenger declaration but they stuffed that up so badly they walked away from it,” Mr Hart told aviation writer Robyn Ironside.

“I think (visitors) would be more inclined to come back to Australia if they didn’t have a horrible experience moving in and out of the country,” he said.

“We know from reporting on social media those sort of experiences – the incoming passenger card and the tourist refund scheme and the like – get a really terrible reputation and terrible comments from visitors and they’re certainly not returning at the rate we’d like them to be returning.”

The SmartGate area is another spot where you can encounter a bottleneck upon returning back to Australia. There have been calls for moving facial recognition technology to be implemented. Picture: Escape

It’s not only the process of completing the form that is a bit of a downer – finding and presenting the card upon arrival in Australia also slows down the flow through the airport terminal.

A Sydney Airport spokesman told The Australian “in the second quarter this year during the morning peak, it took almost an hour for arriving international passengers to get off the aircraft and through the border.”

“That’s too long, and we look forward to working with the government and Border Force to improve the experience for international travellers arriving at Sydney Airport,” the spokesman said.

Mr Hart also said the Tourism Refund Scheme, which requires visitors to queue and fill in paperwork to get GST refunded, was causing unnecessary delays and needs to be modernised.

The Chamber has presented its views on improving the passenger processing system in a report titled Future Traveller Strategy, which will be given to new Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Tony Burke.

The report recommends making multiple-entry visas available for key markets and investing in “passenger on the move” facial recognition technology as an alternative to the SmartGate system.

This article originally appeared on Escape and was reproduced with permission