The federal government is stepping in and hiring about 300 additional staff to speed up passport applications.

With passport wait times blowing out months, daily applications reached a record 16,400 yesterday.

Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts told Ben Fordham more staff will be put in call centres and in the processing queue.

“You’ll start to see that will reduce the wait times [at the call centres] so that people don’t have to queue up to go get an answer on the status of their applications.”

Those who have been waiting for their passports for more than six weeks are encouraged to email passports.clientservices@dfat.gov.au with their contact details and information of their application.

“We’re endeavouring to turn that around inside 24 hours and answer to their situation,” Minister Watts said.

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