Australia yesterday ordered a review of its airport-security measures to allay public concerns over a leaked customs report that found staff at Sydney airport were involved in drug smuggling, theft and could pose a terrorism threat.
Transport Minister John Anderson said the former head of Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service, Sir John Wheeler, would head the review, which is scheduled to report by September.
"We're very conscious of the need to ensure community confidence about what goes on within the grounds of airports," Anderson told reporters.
He said a separate review would be carried out into the backgrounds of all 130,000 airport and maritime port workers issued with security cards, known as ASICs, to ensure they were "fit and proper."
"If the police checks pick up a pattern of criminal behavior or a pattern of involvement with people who might be dark and murky, if I can put it that way, or repeated drug offenses, or a pattern suggesting they cannot be trusted ... then we will withdraw that ASIC card," he said.
Anderson said he expected the probe to uncover a significant number of people with criminal backgrounds.
He said a senior federal police officer would also be appointed as a security controller at each of Australia's major airports to ensure various law enforcement arms such as state and federal police, customs and national security agencies worked efficiently.
Closed-circuit television surveillance of baggage handling areas and aircraft holds would also be tightened.
Anderson said the measures would need significant funding and he would not rule out airlines passing on some of the cost to passengers.
"I don't think people would argue with paying another buck for a ticket for significant increases in their aviation security," he said.
The government action comes after a customs report -- completed last September but never publicly released -- was leaked last week.
The report found Sydney airport baggage handlers had diverted narcotics arriving on international flights to avoid customs inspections and were "suspected of large-scale pillage" of passengers' bags.
It also follows flag-carrier Qantas' dismissal of three Sydney airport workers, including a senior security manager, following an investigation into an alleged cocaine smuggling ring.
The issue of airport staff stealing from passengers' luggage hit national headlines in April when a traveler complained that he saw a baggage handler driving around on the tarmac wearing a camel costume which had been packed in his bag.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS