EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
PASSPORTS ACT 1938
PASSPORTS REGULATIONS (AMENDMENTS)
Statutory Rules 1988 No. 147 issued by the authority of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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 Decision No. 9829 (ERC) 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. 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. Thereafter annual increases to fees each 1 July, based on the Consumer Price Index up to the preceding 31 March were proposed.
3. The Expenditure Review Committee also decided in Decision No. 9829 (ERC) that a new 64 page passport for frequent travellers should be introduced at an initial fee of $100. An annual increase to that fee each 1 July, based on the Consumer Price Index up to the preceding 31 March was proposed.
4. Schedule 2 of the Passports Regulations has been repealed and a new Schedule 2 substituted which sets out the fees to be levied for passports for the period 1 July 1988 to 1 July 1989 and introduces the new 64 page passport.
5. A drafting irregularity found in sub-regulation 9(2) of the Passports Regulations has been rectified by omitting words referring to sub-regulation 9(1A) and substituting words referring to sub-regulation 9)1).
6. It is proposed that these changes be Drought into effect on and from 1 July 1988 as part of the Budget package.
7. The regulations enclosed herewith have been prepared to amend Statutory Rules 1939 No. 47 as previously amended by Statutory Rules 1986 No. 25 and 212 and Statutory Rules 1987 No. 217.