COMMENT | Malaysians in Australia are waiting close to a year for an appointment to present their passport for renewal at the High Commission in Canberra and Consulate General in Melbourne. Which, by the way, is not that newsy.

What’s newsier is this: the Consulate General in Melbourne has only one passport machine, two immigration officers and three assistants to process the applications, according to a recent report.

And, this is despite the three diplomatic missions (Canberra, Melbourne and Perth) apparently clearing close to 10,000 renewal applications a year, presumably before the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Given that the diplomatic missions work under the directives of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and passports fall under the purview of Home Affairs, the news report stopped short of asking the real question.

What is Putrajaya doing to address the systemic problem of unbelievably long delays in...