Mr. Andrew Munro:

It is the case that in any process there will be waiting times. There is a lot of work going on in the Department to deal with the backlog in the citizenship area. It was affected by Covid. We have modified procedures to try to rely less on the transfer of hard copy papers to try to speed things up. The Senator will appreciate the immigration side of the Department is under considerable pressure at present from the temporary protection measures put in place with 25,000 people coming in from Ukraine. There has also been an increase in international protection applications. The immigration operations side of the Department is under considerable pressure. We are conscious of the need to address all of these backlogs.