Travellers would declare overseas organ transplants
Everyone arriving in Australia would have to say if they got a new organ in another country in the last five years, and where. The government would then put out yearly totals to help track the illegal organ trade.
Official name: Migration Amendment (Overseas Organ Transplant Disclosure) Bill 2026
- Your arrival card would ask if you had an organ transplant outside Australia in the last 5 years.
- If you did, you would have to name the hospital and say what town and country it was in.
- The Minister would put out a yearly report with totals and places. It would not name people or hospitals.
- It comes from Senator Dean Smith of the Liberal Party, not the government. It is still before the Senate.
Who it affects
- Everyone arriving in Australia: You would answer a new question on your arrival card about organ transplants overseas.
- People who had a transplant overseas in the last 5 years: You would have to give the name of each hospital and the town and country it was in.
- Members of Parliament and the public: They would get a yearly report showing how many people said yes and which places came up.
Transplant tourism goes uncounted
Some people travel to other countries to get a new kidney, liver or other organ. This is sometimes called transplant tourism. In some places, organs are taken from people who did not agree. Others were paid or pushed into it.
Right now, Australia does not ask people coming into the country about organ transplants. So the government has no good numbers on how often Australians and visitors get organs overseas, or where.
In 2018 a group of MPs and senators wrote a report called Compassion, Not Commerce. It looked at organ trafficking. That means the illegal buying and selling of human organs. Its second big idea was that Australia should keep watch on how other countries do transplants.
Senator Dean Smith brought this bill to the Senate, Parliament's second house, on 20 August 2026. A single senator wrote it, not the government. His notes on the bill say it would give the government facts on how often and where risky or illegal transplants may happen.
New arrival card questions
The bill adds a new section, 166A, to the Migration Act 1958. That is the main law about who can come into Australia and how.
When you land, you fill in an arrival card. You hand it to an officer at the border. The bill would add questions about organ transplants to that card. You would have to answer them.
The first question asks if you have had an organ transplant outside Australia in the last 5 years. If the answer is no, that is the end of it.
If the answer is yes, you must answer two more questions. You must give the country and the town or city of each hospital where you had a transplant. You must also give the name of each hospital.
Say you live in Perth and had a kidney transplant in another country three years ago. On your next flight home you would tick yes. Then you would write down the hospital's name and where it is.
The card would not ask why you had the transplant, which organ it was, or how much you paid. The bill does not create any crime or fine for having had a transplant overseas.
Yearly report to Parliament
Each year ends on 31 December. Within one month after that, the minister for immigration would have to get a report written. It would cover the answers from the year before.
The report must show how many times people said yes to having a transplant overseas. It must also list the towns, cities and countries people named, and how many times each place came up.
The report would not name the hospitals. It would not name any traveller either. Only totals would be made public.
A copy must be given to both houses of Parliament within 10 days that Parliament sits. That means it becomes a public paper anyone can read.
Check after three years
Part 4 of the bill says there must be an independent review once the new rules have run for 3 years. The person doing the review would look at how the changes are working. Their report must also go to Parliament.
Privacy and health details
Your health details are private, and this bill asks for some of them. The senator's notes on human rights say this does touch your right to privacy.
They argue the limit is fair because the questions are narrow. The arrival card already asks visitors who are not citizens if they have tuberculosis. That is a serious lung disease.
Government agencies already hold arrival card answers under the Privacy Act 1988. That law sets rules for how agencies store and use personal details. The notes say the new answers would follow those same rules.
Waiting in the Senate
If it becomes law, the whole thing would start 6 months after the Governor-General signs it. The Governor-General stands in for the King. The gap gives time to change the arrival card.
Senator Smith brought the bill into the Senate on 20 August 2026. The same day, he formally asked the Senate to vote on its main idea. The Senate has not yet debated it or voted on it.
To become law, the Senate would need to pass it, then the House of Representatives, the lower house. After that the Governor-General would need to sign it. Bills like this, from members who are not ministers, often do not get to a vote.
Its journey through Parliament
| 20 Aug 2026 | Senate: Introduced and read a first time |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Senate: Second reading moved |