Consular conundrum report released
A research paper by Alex Oliver of the Australian Lowy Institute for International Policy has investigated the problem of increasing numbers of travellers asking the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for assistance abroad. Stefan Mohamed looks at the highlights of the report
A research paper by Alex Oliver of the Australian Lowy Institute for International Policy has investigated the problem of increasing numbers of travellers asking the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for assistance abroad. Stefan Mohamed looks at the highlights of the report
The key finding of the report states: “Rising international travel, combined with changing traveller demographics, activities and destinations, are increasing the burden and complexity of the consular workload. Media attention on prominent cases tempts politicians to override departmental protocols and consular service charters to provide higher levels of attention and service, bidding up the level of service Australians expect when they encounter trouble overseas.” DFAT’s resources, though, are ‘stretched to the limit’, and the report suggests that a solution to the problem could be the introduction of a consular levy, which would be added either to the cost of a new passport or an airline ticket. The problem of how to fund all the help being offered to Australian tourists is not a simple one to solve, although the report suggests different ways in which it can be achieved, in addition to the consular levy: “At a minimum, government should allow DFAT to retain the money it currently earns from notarial services to supplement consular funding. As a quid pro quo for this funding boost, DFAT should examine its ageing structures and processes to enhance all of its operations, including its consular function.” It also recommends that efforts to manage public and media expectations about what kind of service the government can provide to tourists in need are improved upon and intensified.
Considering what has led to the increase in demand for consular services, the report identified cheaper airline tickets and a strong Australian dollar allowing more people to travel. The profi le of the typical Australian traveller has also changed – the number of under 25s travelling has doubled in the past decade, and the number of tourists over the age of 55 has trebled. The younger travellers get into more trouble, while older travellers come with their higher likelihood of health problems. The popularity of adventure travel, coupled with a propensity to travel to more remote or dangerous places, have not helped. In an average year, DFAT provides general welfare and guidance in over 20,000 cases, and officials say that the help required is becoming more complex and thus more expensive. The organisation allocates around $500,000 annually for emergency travellers’ loans for Australian tourists who have exhausted all other means of surviving or returning to Australia. While some of the requests for help are complex, others are plain silly, but nonetheless take time and personnel to sort out. Some of the examples of requests for help that have been published by DFAT show just how high expectations of service are: “Could DFAT feed my dogs while I’m away?”; “Do you keep statistics on average expat salaries in Thailand?”; “How much money should my cousin bring with him on his visit to Australia?”
As Oliver suggests in the report: “The fact that fewer Australians take out travel insurance than travellers from comparable countries also suggests that the issue of personal responsibility does need to be addressed.” But she goes on the say that it is the very actions of DFAT that have created this expectation, and cites the examples of the effective government responses to the Bali bombing in 2002, the Bangkok airport protests in 2008 and the Egyptian uprising in 2011. “These episodes,” continues the report, “potentially create a ‘moral hazard’ by discouraging Australians from assuming personal responsibility and making their own arrangements to leave danger zones early, in the expectation that they will be rescued expeditiously by the government should trouble arise.”
Solving the problem
Efforts by DFAT to encourage more responsibility from travellers have been made, and include a new Smartraveller website, a Facebook page, an iPhone app and a simple communication strategy: Register. Subscribe. Insure. Such efforts, though, are undermined on a regular basis, as the report points out: “The reality is, however, that the bureaucrats’ rule-book will continue to be thrown out of the window regularly and haphazardly by governments seeking to display a muscular approach on consular services to impress domestic audiences.” The previous funding boost ideas, as described above, will not be sufficient to solve all of DFAT’s problems, states the report, as its ageing structure and processes also need to be streamlined and made fit for today’s purposes. Furthermore, the organisation needs to communicate more extensively and effectively an all media platforms, undertaking a campaign to encourage Australians to assume more responsibility for their actions.
ITIJ spoke to Cover-More’s director of sales Carole Tokody about the current state of travel insurance sales in Australia. Cover-More, said Carole, estimates that around 25 per cent of Australians still do not purchase insurance before they head overseas, equating to around two million Australians travelling uninsured. She did recognise the efforts made by the government to encourage travellers to take out insurance: “DFAT is already proactive in the consumer space with their Smartraveller website and ongoing ‘register-subscribe-insure’ marketing campaign. Earlier this year, DFAT aired a television advertising campaign that featured Erin Langworthy, the young Australian who Cover-More repatriated to Australia after she survived a fall from a broken bungee cord over the Zambezi River in Africa. Mainstream broadcasting such as this, if sustained, should serve the dual purpose of increasing the number of Australians purchasing travel insurance while allowing DFAT to manage expectations around their core business.” Carole added that Cover-More is currently planning to include automatic registration with the Smartraveller website to customers purchasing insurance, which will be the first time a domestic provider has taken this step. Furthermore, the Insurance Council of Australia had this to say about the issue of Australians taking out travel cover: “Travellers should consider the activities they might undertake when taking out travel insurance. Some activities may not be covered or may require an additional premium to be paid, such as off-piste skiing or snowboarding, surfing, rock climbing, kite surfing, hunting, bungee jumping and scuba diving. Each policy has different inclusions, exclusions, and terms and conditions. The Product Disclosure Statement for travel insurance policies will detail the exclusions applicable to the policy. Travellers should read the policy before deciding to purchase a particular travel insurance product, and contact the insurer to clarify any queries.”