Yesterday the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) announced online registration for Australians living overseas and those travelling in risky regions.
Ian Kemish, head of the Consulate branch at DFAT, said that September 11 had underlined the importance of having a tool like the online registration service.
Kemish said that plans to register Australians online had already been in the pipeline, but that it had been pushed forward after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
DFAT received 35,000 phone calls in a matter of days from anxious relatives in Australia checking the whereabouts of loved ones in the US. DFAT made about 8000 follow-up calls in response to those enquires.
According to Kemish, the online registration isn't really intended for people heading overseas to places considered safe by DFAT. Instead its target audience is Australians who are planning to live overseas for extended periods of time, or people planning to travel to regions the department considers risky.
He said it had worked closely with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to ensure it met legislative requirements for managing, storing, and collecting information about Australians.
Also under development is an internal system for use in DFAT's overseas posts to track in real-time Australians in difficulty overseas.
Currently being tested in Kuala Lumpur, DFAT plans to start rolling out the consulate management information system mid-year, with all posts expected to have access to it within the next two years.
“This is something which is a tool for our own staff, not immediately obvious to travelling public,” Kemish said.
He added that there are about 20,000 Australians every year who make contact when they are experiencing difficulty ranging from lost passports, to hospitalisation and death.
“This system is just a tool to help us managing what is a steadily increasing workload because Australians are travelling more,” Kemish said.
Using the example of a person who might be in hospital in London, Kemish said a staff member at an overseas post could visit the Australian and enter information into a database of the new system, giving colleagues in Canberra dealing with the family instant access to all the details.
