Bungles Hinder Airport Security-Brisbane and Cairns Airports

November 13, 2003

Bungles Hinder Airport Security
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia


A SERIES of security oversights at Brisbane and Cairns airports has
revealed systemic failure in Australian aviation security.

A federal parliamentary committee reviewing aviation security in Australia
was told yesterday that co-operation between law enforcement agencies was
so poor that when a man wielding a knife was found aboard a Cairns-bound
aircraft in June, no one told the airport or Queensland police.
Police and the Cairns Port Authority were eventually told of the problem -
after it had been resolved.

The evidence emerged at a hearing in Brisbane before Federal Parliament's
Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit.

In other evidence, Qantas acknowledged it based its security on the
assumption that a terrorist attack would happen one day on an aircraft in
Australia or at an Australian airport, although the chances of such an
incident were minor.









Qantas general manager for security and investigation services Geoffrey
Askew said airlines could not give complete safety assurances despite
significantly upgraded security measures in recent years.

Grounding Qantas's entire fleet was the only way to absolutely guarantee
the safety of the airline's passengers from terrorism, he told the
hearing.

"I think we certainly look at terrorism as a significant risk to our
operations," Mr Askew said.

The previously confidential submission of the Cairns Port Authority
detailed the mishandling of an incident on a Virgin Blue flight from
Sydney to Cairns on June 10 this year.

A 68-year-old man produced a retractable knife 20 minutes into the flight,
and while Federal authorities were alerted Cairns Port Authority airport
manager Ian Robinson said airport management and the Queensland Police
Service were not informed "until after the event".

Mr Robinson said this demonstrated co-operation between law enforcement
agencies was "not 100 per cent at this stage".

"Increasingly we are faced with management of issues on the ground where
we do need to work in a co-ordinated way because no one agency knows the
full story," Mr Robinson said.

He said the Cairns Port Authority also used to receive a "regular stream
of information" from ASIO, but that had ceased in November 2001 due to
alleged leaks.

The committee also was told "white powder incidents" in Brisbane had been
handled ineffectively by law enforcement agencies and there were no
recognised standards for baggage inspection in Australia.

And both airport management and airlines called for Federal Government
financial help to fund a growing number of aviation security requirements.

Six stakeholders - Virgin Blue Airlines, Qantas Airways, Brisbane Airport
Corporation, Cairns Port Authority, L-3 Communications and the State
Government - addressed the hearing.

Brisbane Airport Corporation operations general manager Stephen Goodwin
also reported a lack of co-operation between law enforcement agencies.

He cited the example of a "white powder incident" in Brisbane in which an
unknown substance was discovered at Brisbane International Airport and was
dealt with by airport security.

But it was then re-investigated by federal law enforcement agencies "10
hours after the event".

The substance was sent to the John Tonge Centre for investigation, where
it was found to be a small amount of tobacco.

Mr Goodwin said the BAC spent "17 per cent of total costs" on security
measures last financial year and that figure had increased to an estimated
21.5 per cent this year.

Airlines Qantas and Virgin Blue also requested federal funding to offset
security costs, with Qantas reporting it spent more than $182 million on
direct security costs last financial year.



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