FOR the past two years Australians have been caught up in terrorist bombings in Jakarta, Bali, Egypt and London.

They also found themselves embroiled in the middle of the Israel-Lebanon conflict.
On the natural disaster front, we have had Hurricane Katrina and the Boxing Day tsunami.

Then there was the horrendous bus crash in Egypt, which saw a number of Australians killed and injured.

At any time there are close to one million Australians abroad and data shows Australians make between four and five million separate visits overseas every year.

One of the by-products of the large numbers of Australians travelling overseas is the pressure on our diplomatic and consular officers when things go wrong.

But while Australians are heading overseas in record numbers, those charged with the responsibility of assisting them in times of need has been dwindling.

When the Howard Government came to office in 1996, Australia had 618 diplomatic and consular officials posted to our missions abroad.

Last year that figure had fallen to just 506.

Therefore, at a time when Australians have been travelling overseas in record numbers, there has been a 20 per cent decline in the number of government officials responsible for helping out Australians when they get into trouble.

That is not good enough. Nine times out of 10 our diplomatic and consular staff overseas cannot be faulted.

But when their resources are continually stripped away and their workloads increased, it`s not fair on DFAT officials and it`s not fair on Australian taxpayers, who rightly expect our embassies and consulates be properly equipped.

The mass evacuation of Australians from Lebanon has once again brought the question of Australia`s consular capabilities to the fore.

So far, Australia`s limited number of officials in Beirut have done a great job in a dangerous environment in helping the evacuation of some 3000 Australians.

The problem was the Government simply didn`t have enough officials in Beirut in the first place.

The Lebanon evacuation presents us with a timely opportunity to review the systems that the Government has in place to deal with natural disasters, terrorist attacks and other events, which result in large numbers of Australians getting into trouble overseas.

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