1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2007
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 24/01/2007
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ROLE OF DFAT IN AUSTRALIA'S INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
SERVICES TO THE AUSTRALIAN COMMUNITY Consular services DFAT provides consular services to Australians travelling overseas and their families in Australia through its network of overseas missions and honorary consulates (consisting of 173 points of consular service worldwide), the 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra and consular cooperation arrangements with other countries. Consular services include: assisting Australians who are hospitalised, imprisoned, or require welfare assistance overseas; helping family members when Australian travellers go missing or die overseas; and coordinating responses to overseas emergencies affecting Australian nationals. Of the 5 million Australians who travelled overseas in 2005-06, the Department provided significant consular assistance to 15,882 of them. The Department’s smartraveller campaign promotes safe overseas travel by Australians. In 2005-06 DFAT issued travel advice updates for 152 destinations on the web site at <http://www.smartraveller.gov.au>. Passport services The Department provides secure travel documents to eligible Australians in accordance with the Australian Passports Act 2005 (Cwlth). In 2005-06 the Department issued 1,259,692 passports - compared with 1,260,831 the previous year. On 24 October 2005 the Department introduced the ePassport. This passport has a microchip embedded in its centre pages and uses sophisticated facial recognition technology to improve identity verification processes and fraud detection. The ePassport represents a significant step forward in travel document security, helping to protect Australian travellers and the Australian community from identity-related fraud. Of the passports issued in 2005-06, 822,781 were ePassports. Public information services DFAT provides a range of information services on foreign and trade policy to the Australian public and media, including through briefings and public presentations and the production of public affairs material such as brochures, reports and publications. Links to the Department’s recent publications are at <http://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/>. Through targeted public diplomacy programs managed by Australia’s overseas missions, the department promotes an accurate and contemporary image of Australia internationally and a clearer understanding of Australia’s foreign and trade policies and strategies. In 2005 Australia showcased its reputation as a leading business, tourism and education destination through its participation in the World Expo in Aichi, Japan. Detailed information about Australia’s foreign and trade policies can be obtained from the department’s website at <http://www.dfat.gov.au>. NETWORK OF AUSTRALIAN DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR MISSIONS OVERSEAS DFAT manages an extensive network of Australian diplomatic and consular missions abroad, supporting Australia’s international interests and providing consular and passport services. The Department’s central office is in Canberra and it maintains offices in all other state and territory capitals, as well as in Newcastle and Thursday Island. Information on the location of overseas embassies, high commissions, consulates and multilateral missions managed by DFAT can be found in the on-line version of the Department’s annual report at <http://www.dfat.gov.au/annual_reports>. LOCATION AND NUMBER OF DFAT STAFF The Department currently employs 2,040 Australia-based staff, of whom around 25% are posted overseas; an additional 1,449 locally-engaged staff are employed by the Department’s overseas missions (graphs 3.1 and 3.2).
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