Audit proposes border security merger

Border protection would become the responsibility of a single new agency under a plan put forward by the Abbott government's commission of audit.

The commission wants to see the border protection roles of the immigration department and Customs merged into a single new body, to be called Border Control Australia.

The move would remove duplication and bring staff numbers down, the commission says.

It also recommends outsourcing the department's visa processing role.

"Many tasks related to visa processing are high volume and low complexity and would be well suited to outsourcing," it says.

The department currently grants around 4.7 million visas every year.

Under the outsourcing plan it would only need to retain "residual" processing capability for difficult or sensitive cases.

The commission also recommends the Migration Review Tribunal and the Refugee Review Tribunal be subsumed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.