EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
PASSPORTS ACT 1938
PASSPORTS REGULATIONS
Statutory Rules 1985 No. 277 issued by the authority of the Minister of State for Resources and Energy for and on behalf of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
Section 12 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 or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act, and in particular for empowering the Minister or his delegate to issue certificates of identity or other travel documents and to endorse Australian Passports.
2. The Act was amended by the Passports Act Amendment Act 1984 which removed the residual powers to deal with 8ritish travel documents, simplified procedures for the issue of passports to children in certain exceptional cases and made decisions relating to the issue of Australian passports reviewable in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
3. The amendments to the regulations remove references to British travel documents from the regulations and make other
amendments which bring the regulations into Line with the Act, as amended. In addition they provide for maximum periods of validity for Australian travel documents and provide that Australian travel documents may be endorsed to affect their validity or to include children on the one document. The regulations also provide that decisions made under the regulations are subject to the same appeals provision as decision made under the Act.