The federal budget has some information regarding smartgate:

From http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/budgeth...border_control

"The initiative includes the introduction of biometric passports later this year for all new and replacement Australian Passport holders. The ePassports contain a microchip that will store an electronic image of the passport holder. The program will cost the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade $67.5 million over the first four years and will be offset by a $19 increase in the fee for an adult passport and a $9.50 increase in the fee for a child/senior passport."

"Customs will build on the success of the Smart Gate system currently trialling self processing using face recognition at Sydney and Melbourne International Airports, to gradually phase in automated border processing at major airports. The rollout will be linked to the anticipated uptake of Australian and foreign biometrically enabled ePassports."


So the way I read this, any new passport as of later this year will be "smartgate" compatible. Of course it could also mean they're about to scrap Smartgate in favour of a different type of biometrics.

Did a standard ever get created on what type of biometrics worldwide was going to be used for ePassports? I can't see customs building a machine that can check fingerprints/retina/face shape etc depending on what each country decided to use for Biometrics.