No more departure cards: What does it mean for airline passengers departing Australia?

From July 1 this year, airline passengers departing our shores have no longer been required to fill in an Outgoing Passenger Card.

Announcing the end of the green-form era, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said: "Removal of the outgoing passenger card further supports the move towards a more seamless, secure and simplified border clearance process. The automated process will add to existing state-of-the art passenger processing technology at our border and will help reduce queuing times and get travellers to their destination more quickly."

Since SmartGates were installed at Australia's international airports to scan the passports of departing passengers, the requirement to hand in an OPC has been a formality, and largely overlooked by the officers on duty. After passing through the SmartGate in Sydney for example, departing passengers were supposed to insert their OPC in a perspex box, however this was not policed, and nobody seemed worried if a passenger either forgot or neglected to do it.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which previously used the OPCs to compile statistics on departing travellers, more than 230,000 OPCs went missing in March this year, about 15 per cent of the total. With the demise of the OPC, government departments will access core data such as passengers' names, flight numbers, destination, passport details and contact information from the Advance Passenger Information System, an enhanced border security system developed by US Customs and Border Protection.

The government now has a richer data source of information about each departing passenger, which will either be a cause for reassurance or concern.