What it does
The Foreign Passports (Law Enforcement and Security) Act 2005 establishes a statutory framework empowering the Minister and enforcement officers to compel the surrender of foreign travel documents in defined circumstances linked to law enforcement, international cooperation, and national security risks. At its core, the Act operates through two principal mechanisms: (1) a request-and-order process under Part 2 whereby competent authorities trigger Ministerial consideration, and (2) a suite of strict-liability-style offences in Part 3 that criminalise misuse, falsification and fraudulent procurement of such documents.
Division 1 of Part 2 sets out four distinct request pathways. Section 13 permits a competent authority to request an order under s 16 where the authority believes on reasonable grounds that a person is subject to an Australian arrest warrant for an indictable offence (s 13(1)(a)), or is prevented from international travel by court order, parole conditions, bail, or Commonwealth law (s 13(1)(b)). Subsection 13(1A) adds a mandatory pathway for Australian citizens who are “reportable offenders” entered on a State or Territory child protection register with ongoing reporting obligations. Section 14 mirrors this for international cooperation, covering foreign arrest warrants for “serious foreign offences” (defined expansively in s 14(2) to include offences carrying at least 12 months’ imprisonment, extraditable conduct under treaty, or conduct that would be indictable in Australia) or analogous foreign travel restrictions. Section 15 authorises requests on a lower “suspects on reasonable grounds” threshold where surrender is necessary to prevent conduct that might prejudice security, endanger health or safety, interfere with ICCPR rights, or constitute specified indictable offences. The newer s 15A, inserted by later amendment, grants the Director-General of Security a specific power to request a 28-day temporary surrender order under s 16A where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the person may leave Australia to engage in security-prejudicing conduct; a statutory cooling-off rule in s 15A(2) prevents repeat requests unless fresh intelligence obtained more than 28 days after the original order is relied upon.