Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The government is committed to ensuring that the aviation network is safe and secure for all Australians.

It is unfortunate but true that airports are terrorist targets. This was most clearly illustrated last July, when catastrophic consequences were avoided with the disruption of a terrorist plot targeting an international flight departing from Sydney.

Had those plotting the attack been successful, it would have caused an immense loss of life and been a defining moment for our country in the worst possible way.

Airports can also be focal points for serious and organised crime groups seeking to expand their operations in activities such as illicit drug trafficking, both within Australia and abroad.

The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Police Powers at Airports) Bill will help to ensure that Australia's aviation network remains among the safest in the world. This bill will enable police officers to appropriately engage with people at Australia's major airports in specified circumstances, to assess and disrupt potential security and criminal threats.

Firstly, the bill will expand on existing powers under the Crimes Act to enable police at certain airports to direct a person to provide proof of their identity where it is necessary on reasonable grounds to safeguard aviation security.

This new power is based on advice from the Australian Federal Police that the current requirement to suspect that a person is about to commit, or has committed, a criminal offence before conducting an airport ID check is no longer fit for purpose. Police intelligence or observations that a person is behaving suspiciously in the airport—for example, by taking photos or videos of security screening points—will not always meet the current threshold. This is not satisfactory in today's threat environment.

Reasonable Australians understand that, in some circumstances, it will be important for law enforcement to know the identity of people that are in our major airports. In a number of overseas jurisdictions, such as the UK, US and Canada, a person must produce their ID when flying domestically as well as internationally.

That being said, police have no intention of checking the identity of people at random in the airport environment, nor would they have the power to do so under this bill. Rather, police will exercise the new identity checking powers based on clear criteria in the legislation, and relying on their specialist expertise and training.

With the amendments contained in this bill, a person on the premises of a major airport may be issued with a direction to provide evidence of identification only where a constable or AFP protective service officer:

Secondly, the bill will empower police officers to direct that a person leave the aviation environment, or not take a flight, for up to 24 hours.

The new move-on power will only be available to police in a limited range of circumstances, including where it is reasonably necessary to prevent or disrupt serious criminal activity at airports or on a flight, or safeguard aviation security. A person may also be directed to move on where they fail to comply with an identity check or a police direction to stop.

In the absence of a Commonwealth power to address security or criminal risks, police at airports may be forced to use move-on directions available in limited circumstances under varying state and territory legislation—leading to an inconsistent approach.

The new move-on power in this bill will ensure police can respond to serious threats that arise in the aviation environment in a more tailored and proportionate way. For example, police may exclude a known member of an outlaw motorcycle gang from the arrivals hall of an airport for a period of two hours, in circumstances where police have intelligence about an incoming flight carrying rival gang members. Issuing a move-on direction in this situation may be necessary to safeguard aviation security and ensure the safety of the travelling public.

Finally, the bill will create new criminal offences for failing to comply with an identity check, move-on or stop direction, punishable by a fine of up to $4,200. To ensure there are appropriate safeguards on the use of these powers, the bill will also contain requirements for police officers to comply with certain duties in exercising the new powers—including appropriately identifying themselves and informing a person that failure to comply with a direction may constitute an offence.

A patchwork of Commonwealth, state and territory laws currently apply across Australian airports. The bill will address some of this complexity by giving state and territory police and AFP officers, including protective service officers, consistent and appropriate powers to manage risks that are unique to the aviation environment.

The new powers will be available in all major capital city airports, as well as Gold Coast, Launceston, Alice Springs, Townsville and Cairns airports, and any additional airports that the relevant minister determines should be covered into the future, based on operational advice from the AFP.

Risks to aviation security are not static, and our laws shouldn't be either. We need to continue to strengthen our security arrangements to keep ahead of these evolving threats. We do this on the basis of advice from our operational agencies and I thank them sincerely for the work they do to keep the Australian community safe.

The new identity checking and move-on powers are necessary, reasonable and proportionate to the criminal and security risks at airports. Importantly, with this bill, we are striking the right balance between security and minimising disruption to the travelling public.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for the next sitting.