Australians to be issued E-passports

AUSTRALIANS will be issued with "e-passports" equipped with microchips in October, making Australia one of the first countries to introduce the new, more secure, travel documents en masse.

The passports, to be introduced on October 23, will contain much the same information as the existing paper books but the details will also be stored digitally on a chip embedded in the passport.

Chip passports will eventually be mandatory for all travellers to the US from countries participating in the US's visa waiver program.

The only change for Australians applying for a passport will be the requirement for a high-quality photograph that can be scanned and stored in the passport, said assistant secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's passport branch Bob Nash.

The photo will eventually be used in conjunction with the "Smart Gate" facial recognition system being used by Customs, which will compare the face of the person using the passport to the photo stored on it. The new passports will cost $19 more than the $153 currently charged for a standard 32-page document.

Current passports will continue to be valid after the October 23 introduction date, Mr Nash said. "We are not recalling any passports."

The chips in the passports have the ability to store a range of biometric information, including fingerprint and iris-scan data. But DFAT had no plans to include such data on Australian passports, Mr Nash said.

Australia had about 8.5 million passport holders and it would take about 10 years before all Australian travellers were using the new documents.

The advantages of the new passports - including improved security and a reduced chance of identity fraud - would not become apparent until more people were using them, Mr Nash said.

Customs has also said it will not install facial-recognition kiosks until there are enough e-passports in circulation, with early 2007 planned as the roll-out date.