Australian Passport Office executive director Bridget Brill told senate estimates on Thursday morning that passport-demand modelling, once travel restrictions were lifted, was “unfortunately” wrong.
Brill said the Passport Office was aware there was “unmet demand” when people weren’t renewing passports during the time of international border closures.
“The first thing we did was start to send out reminder notices. So we were very conscious that we were building what we call unmet demand, which was Australians who would normally renew their passports were not renewing their passports,” Brill said.
In DFAT’s annual report for 2021-22, keeping up with passport-production measures was the only outcome the department assessed itself as not meeting.
The executive director said the office was aware the situation was going to create a “bottleneck” of passport applications once restrictions were lifted.
Unfortunately, the modelling for demand was wrong, and demand “far exceeded” expectations.
The government added staffing levels at the APO had been increased to keep up with demand.
Minister for foreign affairs Penny Wong and DFAT secretary Jan Adams were likewise in attendance at the hearing.
During her opening statement, Wong announced a new initiative between the government and ANU’s National Security College, called NS23. The initiative will educate parliamentarians about national security matters.
In her opening statement, Adams viewed her job as shaping outcomes in the world to suit Australia’s interests in an era of “strategic competition”.
“I place such a high priority on lifting defence capability, on working with Defence and national security agencies, as well as across federal and state governments, businesses and NGOs — all vital to Australia’s influence.
“I’m, of course, immensely proud to lead a department of such talented and hardworking people. Their dedication to service, often in demanding or dangerous circumstances is impressive,” the secretary said.
“Conflict comes when diplomacy does not succeed,” Adams concluded.
The senate estimates are set to continue for the rest of the day.
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