Australia against Terrorism

The government of Australia is once more the driving force in the worldwide fight against international security threats. In order to introduce more security and transparency, a new ePassport project has been tendered in 2013 with the aim of renewing all personalization equipment and introducing a comprehensive solution for the centralized personalization and issuance of the national travel document, including quality print and lamination of data pages for an average annual volume of about 2.5 million ePassports.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia is the responsible authority for the issuance of the Australian Passport, of which approximately 7,000 pieces per day are issued at State Passport Offices and two large passport production centers which services overseas diplomatic posts.

In order to implement state-of-the-art technology and achieve highest security standards, the government teamed up with German high technology provider Mühlbauer, who was awarded the project to provide the complete personalization and mailing hardware and software as well as the personalization management system. Within the scope of the project, moreover, was the seamless integration of the new systems into the existing infrastructure, the supply of the complete line consumables for the duration of the 5-year project, the training of local staff provided by an experienced onsite staff, and the provision of fulltime local maintenance and service support.

High-secure Personalization and Issuance

For the personalization of the ePassports, two centers with high-volume personalization equipment were set up in Melbourne, with the aim of centralizing the passport personalization and issuance to a primary and secondary production facility. The facilities opened their gates in October 2016, marking a milestone for the Australian Passport Office under the DFAT.

The centers boast an efficient and optimized personalization process during which the citizens’ datasets are collected from a central secure document management system and prepared for further processing, in order to personalize the blank travel document.

The finalized documents are issued to the applicants via the secure mailing service with high-speed passport mailing systems. Applicants in the domestic and foreign state offices can directly collect the finished documents.

Successful Partnership

DFAT APO Executive Director Mr. Bob Nash expressed his utmost appreciation to Mühlbauer team for supporting DFAT throughout this project and assured that his trust in Mühlbauer’s competence was well placed. Founded in 1981 the Mühlbauer Group has ever since grown to a leading global player of the security sector and developed significant know-how in providing systems and solutions for the personalization and issuance of ePassports. Walter Valeri, Director of the Australian Passport Office explains the decision to choose Mühlbauer as partner for this project: “The Australian Government has high expectations on the quality and security of the issued electronic Passports. Mühlbauer supported our visions and target to issue excellent and high-quality passports in a professional way. Mühlbauer personnel guided us with all their expertise in training and guidance to deliver a secure document for worldwide travel. Moreover Mühlbauer has demonstrated expertise in the other fields and has been very forthcoming whatever issues we have faced in the course of the project by offering new ideas and possible ideas.”

With its partner Mühlbauer, DFAT APO has successfully implemented a centralized passport personalization and issuance infrastructure. Mühlbauer is proud to have contributed to this achievement.

In May 2017 the new production facility of the Australian Passport Office in Melbourne personalized and issued the millionth ePassport.

Press Contact:

Lara Schmaus

Phone: +49 9461 952 – 1579

Email: Lara.Schmaus@muehlbauer.de