Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Homeland Security) Share this | Hansard source

I just wish in conclusion to make a couple of comments about one aspect of that second reading amendment that I have not touched on so far, and that deals with the aviation security identification cards. These are the cards that people who work in the aviation industry are required to have as a security clearance. They involve extensive and invasive background searches by the Federal Police and ASIO of those individuals to ensure that they present no security threat. They work in sensitive and secure areas of the airports. The ASIC system is important; we on this side of the House support it. We supported its introduction; indeed we have called for improvements in the system on a number of occasions. The government, however, have not provided the management of this system that is necessary.

In the short time in which those aviation security cards have been in operation, there have been somewhere in the order of 12,000 to 14,000 cards issued. In that short time the government have administered a system in which about 400 of those cards have been lost—unaccounted for. These are high-security cards. These are cards that allow people access to the most sensitive areas of our airports, and in the first two years that the system has been operating they have already lost 400 cards. It makes one wonder what is going to happen with this national access card that the parliament dealt with earlier today. If they lost 400 high-security cards, imagine what is going to happen to 15 million access cards. Anyone who thinks that access card is somehow going to reduce identity theft needs to have a look at this government’s mismanagement of these matters.

The fact is that 400 of these high-security aviation industry cards cannot be accounted for. Four hundred out of about 12,000: that is a pretty ordinary record. I have raised this in the parliament before, and I see ministers who have got up at the dispatch box and said: ‘Well, people lose things. People lose their drivers licences. Members of parliament might even lose their IDs.’ Those things are true; of course people lose things. But we are not talking here about losing your drivers licence or your MasterCard. We are talking here about losing a document that is the subject of quite extensive security clearances. Frankly, you do not have a security check to get a drivers licence. Your drivers licence is not a security clearance card, and the ASIC is. Pretending that we do not need to worry about 400 lost ASICs because people lose cards like that is an indication of the total arrogance and lack of interest in the security mechanisms at our airports. For a minister, as has happened on a number of occasions, to stand at this dispatch box in reply to my concerns about this with those comments is damning of their own either ignorance of the situation or arrogance.

Frankly, the government’s management of aviation security has not been up to standard. The government should spend more time getting the practical measures right and less time worrying about the political spin: less time wrapping the flag around itself, less time getting photo opportunities with our defence personnel and more time doing the things that make Australians safer.

This bill is a good bill, and it will assist in ensuring that those who travel on international flights can travel with a greater degree of safety. It will involve people undergoing pat-down searches. The bill provides that they will be voluntary. Of course, if you refuse to undergo a pat-down search it is very likely you will be refused entry to the plane. But in the current situation, where we do not have reliable technologies to identify liquid explosives, this is a prudent and proper course to be followed. But here again the government have simply not matched their political spin with reality. The political spin they would have Australians believe is that they are on top of these issues and doing a good job. The reality is the International Civil Aviation Organisation said to all of the member countries: you need to have these in place no later than 1 March. We will not have these laws in place; the government do not intend them to operate before 31 March at the earliest, and it may in fact be later than that. But the earliest these will operate is 31 March.

The Australian travelling public are going to be exposed to a risk for the month of March, and perhaps longer, that they should not be. For at least one month, the Australian aviation industry will not be applying the standards which the International Civil Aviation Organisation recommended. We should have world’s best practice in these matters. This is a wealthy country with a well-developed aviation industry. We should not be dragging the chain; we should not be following other nations with these matters. We should be out there in the forefront, providing the best security that is available. Frankly we have not, as a nation.

This government has not administered this area well, and even in this small matter being dealt with by this bill it still could not get its act together to implement these safety procedures in line with the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s recommendations. The government deserve to be condemned for their failures in those areas set out in the second reading amendment. That said, the bill is an improvement on the laws and we will support it.

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