New police powers to check airport travel IDs in terror crackdown
POLICE will have sweeping new powers to demand IDs and order people to leave airports in a security crackdown designed to close a loophole currently preventing authorities from pursuing criminals and terrorists before they fly.
NSW
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POLICE will have sweeping new powers to demand IDs and order people to leave airports in a security crackdown designed to close a loophole currently preventing authorities from pursuing criminals and terrorists before they fly.
The new laws follow revelations in The Daily Telegraph that a major security flaw stops Australian Federal Police from checking the identification of suspicious passengers possibly travelling with false IDs before they board domestic flights.
Malcolm Turnbull and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton are expected today to announce the new measures, which also include an extra 190 counter-terrorism police stationed at airports and upgraded X-ray machines.
The laws will give police broader powers to check identities at airports and to order people who pose a criminal or security threat to “move on”.
The crackdown comes after an alleged terror plot to bring down an Etihad flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi — by two men connected to Islamic State — was foiled last July.
The change follows a review by the Inspector of Transport Security Michael Carmody which is understood to have raised concerns that police currently have the power to request IDs at major airports only if they suspect someone of committing a crime punishable by more than a year in prison.
The Daily Telegraph last year revealed a report into airport security received by the government in March detailed a number of requests by the AFP for additional powers to ask for IDs, names and addresses of passengers along with boarding passes.
“The AFP considers an effective preventive measure would be to enable a form of identification to be produced with a boarding pass, prior to any person boarding a flight,” the report read.
“As a further preventive measure, the AFP suggests a power to request name and address of suspicious individuals identified.”
Mr Turnbull, responding to a spate of terror attacks in Indonesia, said the government had “no greater responsibility than keeping Australians safe and keeping Australians safe from terrorism”.
“The threat is very real … we’ve had 14 plots, terrorist plots, disrupted here in Australia, including one that would have brought down an A380,” Mr Turnbull said.
“It’s one we are absolutely committed to meeting and as you know, we are always putting more resources behind our agencies to keep us safe, whether it is in terms of better laws, stronger laws, better technology, or more financial resources.”
Last week’s federal budget included an extra $294 million in funds for major aviation security changes.
It included the introduction of new screening operations at 13 regional airports including Armidale, Moree, Port Lincoln and Whyalla.
More advanced screening equipment and explosive detection will be installed at larger airports, including body scanners which will replace walk-through metal detectors across the country.