The Australian passport has been revealed as the most expensive in the world for the second year in a row, but research suggests its power is waning.
Following the latest price hike in January, a ten-year Australian passport costs $412, which works out to an average fee of $41.20 per year.
This is well ahead of Mexico, which ranked second at $33.59 per year, the United States at $25.12 per year and New Zealand at $22.56 per year, Compare the Market research shows.
Australian passport fees rose by 3.5 per cent in line with inflation in January, following a one-off 15 per cent hike in July last year.
While Australia ranked first in terms of cost, however, it placed equal-seventh in terms of its power, in entailing visa-free access to 185 countries.
According to research from Henley and Partners, this puts it on equal footing with Czechia, Hungary, Malta, and Poland – all of which are substantially cheaper.
On this measure, Australia fell one place compared with last year and was beaten by a total of 21 countries including the UK and New Zealand.
Singapore was ranked first in providing visa-free access to 193 countries, followed by Japan and South Korea with 190.
The Australian passport is the most expensive in the world (stock)
This shows the Australian passport is not only most expensive on an annual basis but also on a per-country basis for visa-free travel.
With a cost per visa-free country of $2.23, it placed ahead Mexico in second place at $2.13, Fiji in third at $1.59 and the US in fourth at $1.38.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has justified Australia’s world-leading costs due to the document’s technological sophistication and anti-fraud measures, though the passport has copped backlash because the edges are known to curl.
DFAT has also batted away suggestions the passport is over-priced by pointing to the number of countries holders are allowed visa-free access to.
While the cost of an Australian passport is indexed to inflation, the one-off price hike in July last year was passed in addition to the legislated increase.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the July increase would raise $349 million over three years, with the windfall earmarked for the rising costs of passport production.
In November, Opposition Senate Leader Simon Birmingham called Labor’s passport fee hikes a ‘backdoor tax grab’.
‘Under Labor Australian passport fees have gone up 22.5 per cent,’ he said.
Despite being the most expensive, the Aussie passport is far from the most powerful
‘What the Albanese government labelled as a ‘modest’ increase to passport fees is now seen for the backdoor tax grab that is it.’
Following the price hike in January, Education Minister Jason Clare said the government was more focused on costs of ‘things that affect Australians every single day’.
Mr Birmingham, however, described a passport as a ‘basic entitlement’ and that any cost fluctuations could affect swathes of hard-working Aussies.
According to the Australian Passport office over 15million Australians have a current passport, north of 55 per cent of the population.
‘Many Australians scrimp and save to afford a special holiday to Bali or Fiji, only to find the cost of a passport is similar to the cost of an airfare,’ Mr Birmingham said.
‘Under Labor, Australians are paying record sums for the privilege of a passport that should be a basic entitlement not an expensive luxury.’
