Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Aviation Transport Security Amendment (Screening) Bill 2012. This is yet another example of a positive agenda where the coalition and the government can come to an agreement on something that is definitely to the benefit of the Australian nation, especially in areas relying on security. This bill will introduce body scanning technology to provide additional security at our international airports. I have just got back from the United States and this was standard fare at every airport as you went through. There is nothing too startling about it: you go into a box, you put your arms up, they scan your body and off you go.

Three legislative changes have come in response to the much publicised breach of aviation security in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 which drastically focused attention on how the world must consider aviation security, including here in Australia. On that day a passenger of Northwest Airlines flight 253 attempted to detonate an improvised device as the flight descended to Detroit airport. The man had successfully concealed the device in his underwear through the screening in both Amsterdam and Yemen: the metal detectors he had walked through had not picked up the non-metallic explosives he was carrying. Since that event three years ago, body scanning technology has been introduced in the United States of America, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. A component of the cost was dedicated to trials last year. The new technology was tested over a period of three weeks at Sydney and Melbourne airports, with 23,577 scans undertaken.

Under this bill, if a person is randomly chosen for a body scan there is no chance to opt out for an alternative screening procedure. If the person refuses a scan they will be unable to pass through the screening point, they will not be able to board their flight or enter an area of security control at an airport. As a result, this bill will repeal section 95A, the opt-out rule, which currently allows for the choice of a frisk search over another screening procedure. Mr Deputy President, while in the United States I went both through the scanning booth and was frisked, and I tell you right now I would prefer the scanning booth—the frisking is quite an experience. Interestingly, the United Kingdom also has a no-opt-out policy and, of the 1.5 million scans conducted, there have only been 12 occasions of passengers refusing to undergo a scan.

The greatest concern about this bill is the potential for body scanning technology to invade personal privacy. I can understand that completely, but the bill includes protection on this issue. First, any image produced by a body scanner must be gender neutral. Also, the person cannot be identified and no physical elements of that person can be revealed. The scans are made based on energy reflected by a passenger's body or any object inside clothing. The unit's software technology compares images with standard profiles and then superimposes the anomalies on a generic human image that is displayed for analysis by screening staff. In addition, the technology that the government specifies does not have the capacity to store or transmit information or data. The scanner has a short electromagnetic scanning field of less than two seconds.

The wave scans are within the limits set by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. The assessment by the US Transport Security Administration confirms that the technology emits 10,000 times less radiofrequency energy than the average mobile phone call. The exposure is also much lower than passengers experience routinely during a flight. Outside a scanner, the exposure for aviation security screeners is very small. Importantly, the scanner can detect both metallic and non-metallic items such as those which caused the 2009 Detroit security breach and made us all think much more deeply about the wider threats to airline security. Unlike walk-through metal detectors, the low power level of the body scanner technology means it will not detect internal medical devices such as pacemakers. I am advised there are no known safety concerns in relation to people with these devices undergoing these types of scans.

In other words, the scanner can detect items that are either difficult or impossible to detect by alternative means. The only alternative method to achieve the same outcome would be an extensive frisk search, which is one that officially would not meet Australian community standards. On this note of detection, it is worth reflecting on the results of the trials undertaken last year. The trials showed few had difficulty with the process but there was, however, a higher alarm rate than that for the walk-through metal detectors caused by money, hair clips, watches and the like.

The coalition will support these measures as it generally has done on aviation security measures in the past, such as those that emerged from the Wheeler review of aviation security which was completed by the former coalition government in 2005. The coalition in government had a strong record of securing Australia's borders by strengthening aviation security. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the coalition redesigned Australia's aviation security regulations to match the greater risk posed by the barbaric terrorism that had been unleashed by mediaeval religious fundamentalists. We substantially upgraded the quarantine service, more than doubling it in one budget alone. We also increased inspections at airports and made sure that almost 100 per cent of passengers coming into Australia went through a proper customs and quarantine check.

That record stands in stark contrast to the record of this government. Last year the government let tuberculosis clinics close in the Torres Strait due to a lack of funds. This is despite the government's chief adviser on infectious lung disease, Julian Waring, warning that closing these centres had Australia being exposed to a more virulent form of tuberculosis, including the drug resistant XDR-TB strain.