The number of passports cancelled by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop more than doubled during the 2013-14 financial year, mainly due to national security concerns and advice from intelligence agencies.
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According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade annual report, 77 passports were cancelled during the 2013-14 period, while department officials continued to focus on high-risk identity fraud cases.
"This 62.5 per cent increase from the previous year was due largely to an increased number of requests from the relevant competent authority to cancel passports on national security grounds," the annual report said.
During 2012-13, former foreign minister Bob Carr cancelled 48 passports for law enforcement or national security reasons under the Australian Passport Act 2005, while 61 passports were cancelled the previous year.
Despite claiming to have "increased its focus of high-risk identity fraud cases", the number of passport fraud allegations investigated by DFAT officials fell by 44 per cent during 2012-13.
DFAT investigated 348 allegations of passport fraud during 2013-14, with 40 cases referred to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and fraud proven on 25 occasions.
A year earlier, the department investigated 632 allegations of passport fraud and 80 cases were referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"The department increased its focus on high-risk identity fraud cases, including through improving our capacity to resolve complex identity cases with facial recognition expertise and facial matching technologies," the report said.
"We worked with other agencies to identify risk indicators and create a risk profile for persons attempting to obtain an Australian passport by using someone else's genuine credentials."
DFAT officials responded to 84 passport-related complaints during 2013-14, which mirrored the 85 complaints recorded a year earlier.
"The Commonwealth Ombudsman made no adverse findings against the department on passport related matters in 2013-14," the report said.
The department issued 1.8 million passports during 2013-14, with Australians making more than nine million trips overseas, which was a 5.83 per cent increase on the 1.7 million passports issued a year earlier.
An estimated 1.9 million people are expected to apply for passport during 2014-15, due to an increasing demand for children's passports.
