Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McGauran for what is a very important question and of concern to all Australians, that is, the safety and security of our aviation industry in this country. Airports are a very important part of that. In September last year we delivered our response to the Wheeler report, which is a comprehensive study of aviation security in this country. I am pleased to say that today, as part of our response to that report, we are announcing that 30 police officers have been seconded to the AFP from Victoria to perform the uniformed policing role at Melbourne airport. Another 25 are expected in December this year and that will bring the total to 55. We already have at the airports of Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra police seconded to the Australian Federal Police who have been carrying out a community policing role. Further to the response we announced in September last year, we also have our new joint airport investigation teams up and running. We are implementing our intelligence teams and we also have airport commanders in place across the 11 designated airports. The Wheeler report stated, as a starting point in its recommendation, that we should have a single line of command at our airports in relation to security, so we put in place 11 airport commanders at all the designated airports.