It took me seven months to get my baby an Australian passport

I’m an Australian father of four, living in the US. Something of a corner case. Nevertheless, getting my kids Australian citizenship by descent, and then Australian passports so we can fly home legally, has kicked off a carnival of errors with a very dark side. Australia is generally thought of as a developed western liberal country with relatively high state capacity. And I have generally found that at least state government services, now administered through centralized offices, have become more efficient over time. Passport applications for children living overseas, however, remain a time machine with a difficult security overhang. Australian citizens can’t get Australian visas, so in practice an Australian has to enter Australia on an Australian passport. Okay, fair enough. So how does one get a passport for a foreign-born Australian citizen in this year of our lord 2026? Have the baby. Order and receive the birth certificate. If the baby is delivered outside of a maternity ward…