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Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the Daily Oz. It is Friday,

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Speaker 1: the twenty fourth of June, and on today's podcast we're

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Speaker 1: talking about passport delays. That is very on theme with

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Speaker 1: the fact that I will not be on the podcast

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Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks, but more on that later, Sam.

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Speaker 1: What's making headlines today?

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Speaker 2: The first headline of your Friday. Education Minister Jason Clair

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Speaker 2: has said that the national teaching shortage is getting worse,

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Speaker 2: not better. Those are his words, due to ongoing COVID

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Speaker 2: nineteen impacts and flew during the winter. While speaking in

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Speaker 2: Darwin yesterday, Claire said he will raise the teacher shortage

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Speaker 2: issues with the education ministers of the States and territories

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Speaker 2: when they next meet.

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Speaker 1: Victorian Deputy Premier James Molino and Health Minister Martin Foley

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Speaker 1: are among four members of the Labor government in Victoria

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Speaker 1: expected to retire at the November state election. Premier Daniel

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Speaker 1: Andrews is expected to announce the retirements of Milino, Foley,

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Speaker 1: another person, Police Minister Lisa Neville and Industry Minister Martin Pacoola,

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Speaker 1: so that is expected to be announced today. That'll force

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Speaker 1: a front bench chained for the Labour Party, which has

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Speaker 1: held government in Victoria since twenty fourteen.

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Speaker 2: Two Overseas News Now and federal prosecutors in New York

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Speaker 2: have recommended that Gallaine Maxwell be sentenced to at least

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Speaker 2: thirty years in prison. Maxwell will be sentenced in a

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Speaker 2: Manhattan Federal District court next week on charges of sex

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Speaker 2: trafficking in connection with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell's

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Speaker 2: lawyers last week asked the judge to impose a prison

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Speaker 2: sentence under twenty years.

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Speaker 1: Finally, some Friday good news, the European Union has announced

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Speaker 1: new legislation to repair damage done to Europe's nature by

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Speaker 1: twenty fifty. This includes a target to quote repair the

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Speaker 1: eighty percent of European habitats that are in poor condition.

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Speaker 1: It says the law will include legally binding targets that

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Speaker 1: will apply to every member state. I'm extremely annoyed. I'm

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Speaker 1: called have breakfast. I'm just really trying to get my

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Speaker 1: passport done.

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Speaker 3: So it's been a while.

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Speaker 2: I lost my passport and i just needed to let

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Speaker 2: them know that I've lost it, but they wouldn't take

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Speaker 2: my call.

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Speaker 1: All right, Sam, I don't know about you, but my

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Speaker 1: personal Instagram has been filled with images and videos of

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Speaker 1: people lining up for passports. Now, just months ago it

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Speaker 1: was people lining up for COVID tests. It appears there

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Speaker 1: is a new frontier of this post pandemic life and

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Speaker 1: it is passports. So how do we get ourselves into

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Speaker 1: this situation where people are waiting for weeks to renew

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Speaker 1: or receive a new passport.

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Speaker 2: As you said, it is definitely the pandemic that we

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Speaker 2: can blame for another inconvenience in our lives. With borders

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Speaker 2: closed and international travel essentially nonexistent during the long pandemic,

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Speaker 2: a lot of people didn't really see the need to

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Speaker 2: renew or apply for new passports. However, it's all caught

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Speaker 2: up with them now. After years of sitting in bottom

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Speaker 2: draws at home, demand for international travel and therefore demand

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Speaker 2: to use your passport, has surged, which means millions of

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Speaker 2: Australians either need to renew their passport which might have

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Speaker 2: expired during the pandemic, or apply for an entirely new one.

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Speaker 2: Now this is essentially packed in what would usually be

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Speaker 2: two years of passport demand into a couple of months,

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Speaker 2: and that has made it really difficult for the Department

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Speaker 2: of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We know them as DEFAT

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Speaker 2: to process passport renewals and applications without significant delays.

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Speaker 1: Now, from where I'm standing, it looks like a bit

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Speaker 1: of a perfect storm of factors that are resulting in

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Speaker 1: these delays. Do we know just how high demand is

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Speaker 1: right now? We heard a bit at the beginning of

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Speaker 1: this segment about what people's frustrations are, But how about

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Speaker 1: is it?

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Speaker 2: So we've got some numbers from DEFAT. They say they've

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Speaker 2: been receiving about ten to twelve thousand applications each day,

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Speaker 2: which is a fair increase from their normal levels, which

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Speaker 2: sits at about that seven to nine thousand daily applications mark.

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Speaker 2: So this means that DEFAT has officially recommended allowing up

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Speaker 2: to six weeks to renew or receive a new passport.

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Speaker 2: But TDA has been talking to people in passport lines

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Speaker 2: this week at the passport office and some of them

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Speaker 2: have been waiting up to ten weeks and still don't

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Speaker 2: have one. We've seen incredibly long lines and people being

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Speaker 2: on hold on the phone for the phone officers for

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Speaker 2: several hours, and that's because staff simply don't have the

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Speaker 2: resources to help everybody who needs assistants to go overseas imminently.

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Speaker 2: We know that the during July period is always a

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Speaker 2: really busy time for Australians traveling overseas, and with the

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Speaker 2: reopening of international borders, this is where the perfect storm

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Speaker 2: seems to come into it now. On one hand, this

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Speaker 2: sharp rebound for traveling is actually a really good thing.

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Speaker 2: There's high demand for international travel and this means that

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Speaker 2: many people in the travel industry can get back to

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Speaker 2: their jobs after two really bruising years during the pandemic,

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Speaker 2: and they'll certainly have their handsful over the next couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks and beyond. On the other hand, it's definitely

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Speaker 2: caused a lot of stress and frustration for travelers, not

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Speaker 2: to mention people working for DEFAT itself. We will hopefully

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Speaker 2: come to an end as people transition out of life

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Speaker 2: under the cloud of the pandemic and start to get

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Speaker 2: all their forms in order and have valid passports to use.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so there does appear to be an end insight,

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Speaker 1: But is there anything being done in the meantime to

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Speaker 1: alleviate the delays that we're hearing about so often?

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Speaker 2: After spending a little bit of time on the back foot,

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Speaker 2: DEFAT now says it's begun training more staff to work

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Speaker 2: at its call centers and passport processing officers to try

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Speaker 2: to meet this surging demand, while they expect delays to

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Speaker 2: reduce over the coming weeks. We spoke to Dean Long

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Speaker 2: and he's the CEO at the Australian Federation of Travel Agents.

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Speaker 2: He said he expects the demand to last at least

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Speaker 2: until the end of the year. We spoke to him

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Speaker 2: earlier this week and he offered a bit of advice

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Speaker 2: for those needing to update their passports before they head overseas.

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Speaker 3: You de really need to go overseas and you've left

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Speaker 3: for to the last minute, pay the priority transaction fee.

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Speaker 3: They're still achieving that to business day once the passport

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Speaker 3: office returns of it, so it will be five hundred dollars.

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Speaker 3: Give will take a few dollars here and there. That

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Speaker 3: means you'll still be able to get on your plane.

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Speaker 3: But for the most part, most people have at least

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Speaker 3: six to eight weeks that they've got that window before

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Speaker 3: their travel.

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Speaker 2: This bit's important. Long said he would allocate eight to

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Speaker 2: twelve weeks for any passport to either be renewed or provided,

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Speaker 2: rather than the six week period advised by DEFAT.

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Speaker 1: We've spoken about the fact that now seems to be

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Speaker 1: the hectic time in travel. It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Speaker 1: A lot of people are wanting if they are able

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Speaker 1: to get out of this cold winter after many years

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Speaker 1: in the country. What other things are we seeing outside

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Speaker 1: of just these passport delays that are the results either

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Speaker 1: of the pandemic or other unforeseen consequences.

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Speaker 2: Zara, your flights in a couple of hours for your

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Speaker 2: long awaited holiday. I think you should leave for the

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Speaker 2: airport asap. It's really going to test the strength of

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Speaker 2: the air transport industry after years of planes being grounded

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Speaker 2: and thousands of staff redundancies. Sydney Airport, for example, shed

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Speaker 2: about fifteen thousand jobs during the pandemic, but now finds

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Speaker 2: itself understaffed and seemly unequipped to deal with the next

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Speaker 2: few weeks, where it's expected that two point one million

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Speaker 2: passengers will join you by traveling over this next period.

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Speaker 2: There's been instances of flight delays, cancelations and missing baggage

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Speaker 2: over recent holidays. None of that, of course, Sarah, is

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Speaker 2: going to happen to you. So to avoid these delays,

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Speaker 2: your best bet would be to give yourself plenty of

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Speaker 2: time to get to the airport and check in for

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Speaker 2: your flight in case anything does go wrong. Airports usually

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Speaker 2: recommend arriving three hours before any international flight, so getting

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Speaker 2: your uber and off you.

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Speaker 1: Go on that very carefully curated point. This is my

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Speaker 1: last podcast until mid July, so you'll be in the

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Speaker 1: very very capable hands of Billy Fitzimon's, who is normally

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Speaker 1: our editor and will for the next couple of weeks

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Speaker 1: also be the daily podcast host until then, have a

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Speaker 1: brilliant weekend and Sam and Billy will be back on Monday.

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Speaker 2: Bye.