New Bill a bid to keep bikies and crims from airport or dock jobs
People applying for jobs at Australian airports or docks would be subject to background checks for prior convictions or gang-related offences under a Bill to be introduced into parliament on Wednesday.
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Bikies and drug-smugglers will be banned from working at Australia’s airports and docks, under proposed laws.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton last night revealed 277 people across Australia, including 70 in Victoria, were working at airports, docks or offshore oil and gas rigs despite known connections to organised crime, bikie gangs or drug-smuggling.
Current laws allow the government to do background checks on people applying for maritime or aviation identification cards, but only to check if they pose a security risk.
A Bill to be introduced into parliament today would expand those checks to include whether a person has prior convictions for gang-related offences or organised crime, illegal importation of goods, interfering with goods under customs control, and foreign incursion and recruitment, which are national security offences.
People applying for jobs such as stevedores or baggage handlers would be subject to the new background checks.
Those who already hold cards would be subject to the checks once their cards expired and they had to renew them.
Mr Dutton introduced a similar Bill in 2016 but it was blocked by Labor.
He will now try again, with his office providing details of several cases where people working in sensitive areas at Australia’s airports and docks had known criminal associations.
“Serious crime is a major threat to our way of life. It costs Australia more than $47 billion a year and causes enormous human suffering,’’ he said.
“That is why this government is doing more to ensure that our airports and seaports and the travelling public are protected from serious criminal activity.’’
The Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crimes) Bill 2019 seeks to amend the Aviation Transport Security Act 2004 (Aviation Act) and the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003 (Maritime Act) to address serious criminal activity at airports, seaports, and offshore oil and gas rigs.
It would mean those with serious criminal convictions are blocked from obtaining an Aviation Security Identification Card (ASIC) or the Maritime Security Identification Card (MSIC) clearance, which gives them insider access to secure areas.
This should make it more difficult for gangs and criminals to smuggle drugs and other contraband through Australia’s ports and airports.
Currently, 250,899 people hold ASIC or MSIC cards. According to Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission statistics, 277 of these people are known to have links to outlaw motorcycle gangs or are on the National Criminal Target List.
Sixty of these people are in Victoria.
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Examples of those with access cards include a baggage handler who is alleged to have bypassed Customs to import cocaine into Australia as part of an alleged drug-trafficking ring operating at Sydney airport.
In another example, someone who applied for an access card had convictions for disclosing official secrets, but could not be ruled ineligible for the card because their previous conviction had only resulted in an intensive supervision order.
In a third example, an outlaw motorcycle gang known to be involved in serious crimes has four members who hold airport or maritime access cards.