Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Aviation Transport Security Amendment (Screening) Bill 2012, which implements a number of amendments to support the introduction of body scanners at Australian international airports. It should be acknowledged that the introduction of body scanners at these airports is of concern to some Australians and this is understandable. When considering the implementation of this new technology at our international airports, the community will need to be assured that the scans are safe and that their privacy is absolutely protected. Legitimate concerns have also been raised about the level of inconvenience and delays travellers will face at airports and the value that body scanners will add to our overall national security regime.

As Minister Albanese outlined in his second reading speech, the government determined to implement body scanners at Australian international airports after an incident on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. A passenger on Northwest flight 253 attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device as the flight descended into Detroit airport. The man had successfully concealed an improvised explosive device in his underwear through security screening in Amsterdam and Yemen. The bomb contained no metallic parts and was made from two highly explosive substances. The man was able to walk through a metal detector without causing any alarm to sound. Thankfully in this instance the passenger was not successful. He was detained, and last year pleaded guilty in a US court. The thwarting of a bomb plot using an explosive device similar to that used in Detroit in 2009 by US officials earlier this year indicates that the use of non-metallic explosives is a current threat.

It is understandable that the community would have reservations about the introduction of this new technology at Australian international airports. The coalition referred the bill to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications to obtain assurances that appropriate health and safety privacy standards are met and that the machines are effective and add to our national security framework. The committee has recommended that the bill be passed. A Senate committee inquiry report has been twice delayed but is expected later this month. The coalition would have preferred this debate to be held after the Senate report was tabled. It is possible that the Senate may propose some amendments to the bill.

This is an ongoing issue which I need to raise on almost every bill that comes before this parliament. The committee processes are truncated, there is no opportunity for committees to effectively look at the issues and frequently a bill is brought on for debate in the parliament before the committees have even reported on it. In this case, the House of Representatives committee has reported but the Senate committee, which has been dealing with some other issues, has not reported. So the House has its only opportunity to deal with this bill before the Senate committee of inquiry has been completed. This has been happening too often particularly in the transport portfolio, but I know it has been happening in other places as well. If the government needs to have this legislation passed by a particular date, do not rush it in at the last moment and expect the whole parliament to blindly debate it without having had any proper scrutiny.

The member for Lyne has made much of the need to improve parliamentary scrutiny and to have a committee system that looks more effectively at the bills. The reality is that the committee system is working worse now than at any other time that I can remember in parliament. The government uses its numbers to push these debates through and get bills to the stage where they come into the parliament even though there may be significant issues that have not been properly resolved. I think that is unsatisfactory process.

Having been critical of the way in which the government manages the legislation in that regard, can I thank the minister for taking up the suggestion I made that the scanners be brought into parliament so people could actually see for themselves how they work. I think that was a useful exercise and I know a number of members did take the opportunity to put themselves through the scanner to see how it worked.

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