EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
PASSPORTS ACT 1938
PASSPORTS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Statutory Rules 1989 No. 133 issued by the authority of the Minister of State for Trade Negotiations.
1. 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 which are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed, for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
2. On 21 August 1987 the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet agreed in Minute No. 8929 (ER) that the fee for the issue of passports should be indexed to the Consumer Price Index with the base fees being the fees prescribed from time to time. This decision was endorsed by Cabinet on 1 September 1987 (Decision No. 10043). The first increases took effect on and from 1 October 1987, based on the Consumer Price Index up to 31 March 1987 and on the base fees of $60 for a passport issued to an adult and $25 for a passport issued to a prescribed minor.
3. Following a further rise in the Consumer Price Index, this amendment will increase the cost of an ordinary passport to $76 and of a child’s passport to $31, as well as increasing other associated costs, with effect from 1 July 1989, in accordance with Cabinet’s decision.