Portfolio — 14 July 2026

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Ms Julie Collins, announced $56.1 million over four years to replace paper incoming passenger cards with digital passenger cards at Australian international airports [TA-260713-agricu-37d20d440c5f:mHWM]. The funding backs the Australia Travel Declaration — a pilot that has been running with Qantas and the Australian Border Force since October 2024 and has already processed more than 450,000 inbound passengers on eligible flights to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne [TA-260713-agricu-37d20d440c5f:mHWM].

The rollout will extend to Perth and Adelaide before the end of 2026, then phase across all international airports and seaports over the following 12 to 18 months, initially via a webform. Beyond passenger processing, the investment funds co-design work to improve airport departure and cruise clearance models, with better-quality traveller data explicitly framed as a tool for strengthening biosecurity risk assessment — a core Agriculture portfolio concern.

The announcement carries a dual portfolio logic: faster digital clearance reduces congestion at the border for tourism purposes, and the Minister for Trade and Tourism, Senator Don Farrell, co-signed the release to highlight the visitor-economy benefit. The 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games feature as a forward planning anchor, with the government framing the phased rollout as infrastructure that will be operational and mature before the Games add significant volume pressure to international airports.

The cross-agency structure of the pilot — Agriculture, Home Affairs via the Australian Border Force, and a private airline partner in Qantas — reflects the multi-portfolio character of the instrument, even though the funding announcement is carried by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry portfolio.