Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on the Passports Legislation Amendment (Integrity) Bill 2015 in continuation from what is now, I think, a couple of months ago. Here is an interesting story about passports. My wife's grandfather—I think the correct term would be grandfather-in-law—came to Australia as a young man after the First World War. He is now deceased. He was originally from England. When he was in his mid-80s his son, my father-in-law, who is also now deceased, decided it would be a good idea to take him back to England to visit the homeland where he was born. They decided to go through the process of trying to get him a passport.

So they went to the passport office to make the normal applications. Having lived here for 65 years since he was 20, having worked and paid his taxes and having been on the electoral roll all those years, when he went to get a passport they could not actually find any record of him entering Australia. They said to him, 'How did you get to Australia in the first place?' He said, 'After the war, I came in on a ship. The ship arrived in Circular Quay, I walked down the gangplank, there was no-one there and I just went on my way.' So he entered Australia just after the First World War without a passport or any documentation and lived his life most successfully here in Australia for, as I said, over 65 years.

But times have changed. We need to ensure the integrity of the close to 12 million passports issued here in Australia. We need to have integrity and security around these documents, and that is what this bill does. Unfortunately, in today's world we have people who wish to harm us and our nation. If we are going to continue to allow the freedom of movement that we do between countries, with the quick and easy movement of people through airports and through customs, we need a passport system that has all the mechanisms in place where passports are issued and maintained to ensure their integrity.

Another thing I would like to discuss on the subject of passports is the increase in the number of Australians who have passports and are using them. If we go back to the year 1976, the first year that the Australian Bureau of Statistics took statistics of the number of Australians making overseas trips, there were 656,000 overseas trips made by Australians. In the last 12 months, that number has increased, from just over half a million, to 9,236,700. So, even if we account for the larger population, an Australian today is eight times more likely to need a passport and to make an overseas trip. I think that is a truly remarkable figure. If we want to provide opportunity to Australians, today you have eight times more opportunity to travel overseas than you did in 1976. I was looking online only a few weeks ago, and today you can fly to Singapore—admittedly from the Gold Coast—for $275. International air travel has never been more affordable, I would suggest, at any time in human history. That gives many more Australians the opportunity to travel and see the world. I believe this is a very, very good thing.

If we look at the change in business travel patterns, our ABS figures measure numbers of people who travel overseas from Australia for either business or conferences. In 1991, the first year the figures were available, there were 328,000 trips made by Australians overseas for either business or a convention purpose. In the last 12 months, that number was 1,122,900. So, since 1991, 3½ more times Australian citizens are travelling overseas for business and conferences—again, a remarkable figure. The number of foreign businessmen travelling to Australia has also increased remarkably. In 1991, 264,600 foreign businesspeople arrived in Australia for either business purposes or a convention. In the last 12 months, that number was 832,500. Since 1991, that is a 214 per cent increase in the number of businesspeople travelling into the country.

What does the future hold for the demand for passports? One thing that is going to drive this economy and drive the demand for international travel is the growth of China. We know that in the last 12 months the Chinese economy expanded by $876 billion. That is the growth, more than twice the GDP of Australia, in the last 12 months. If we as a country are going to provide the opportunities for jobs, for travel and for wealth creation for future Australians, we have an obligation to make sure that our people can tap into that Chinese growth. That is, thankfully, what the free trade agreement that we are in the process of finalising with China will do. We see that total direct trade with China now contributes 5.5 per cent to Australian GDP. In fact, one in 58 Australian workplaces is directly involved with exports to China. We look at the enormous growth in our exports. Many people walk around Australia and it is a common thing for people to think that everything is made in China, from clothing to computers to footwear. We bought $50 billion of imports from China in the last year. However, although we have imported an amazing amount, $50 billion worth, of goods and services, we have actually exported twice as much. We Australians export twice as much to China as we import. In the last 12 months, $100 billion of goods and services were exported from Australia to China. We see, in a paper by the Australian National Bank and the Australian Business Council, the growth in the number of jobs that that has created. I will give some of the numbers. In 2004, 60,000 Australian jobs were directly due to exports to China. In 2011, the last year figures are available for, that number was 194,000. That number now would be well over 200,000 jobs.

It cannot be more simple. The free trade agreement that we have signed with China, as all the economic modelling shows, will create more jobs, create higher wages and create more wealth and more opportunity to this country. It is simple, as it has always been. Trade means jobs, and freer trade means more jobs. Unfortunately we have seen in this country—and it is currently continuing—the most disgraceful, xenophobic, union-led campaign. It is a campaign that has known economic vandalism and is verging on treason against this free trade agreement.

We note the costs of delays with the Labor Party sponsoring this union-led campaign. There are risks and I will provide some of the numbers. The National Farmers Federation says that, if it is delayed beyond one year, the cost to rural communities will be $300 million. The red meat industry stands to lose $100 million. The dairy industry will have an $80 million loss. The wine industry will lose $50 million. The grain industry will lose $43 million. The coal industry—and I note the member for Hunter, who represents a large area of the coal industry, is here —

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