Australia to set standard on luggage security

Australia will introduce security guidelines for travellers leaving Australian airports after the Schapelle Corby case sparked concerns about baggage being tampered with after it has been checked in.

Corby, currently serving a 20-year jail term in Bali after being found guilty of importing cannabis in her boogie board bag last October, claimed the drugs were inserted after the bag was handed to Qantas staff.

Since the verdict, passengers have been shrink-wrapping their luggage, placing it in nets, using tamper-proof seals and buying more specialised locks since allegations emerged of baggage handlers using passengers' bags to smuggle drugs.

In a bid to ease fears, Standards Australia (SA) says it will host a luggage forum next month to devise national guidelines on securing bags.

SA strategy manager Mark Bezzina said although authorities were improving baggage handling procedures and airport security, there were no guidelines covering luggage.

"Against the backdrop of what's been in the media lately, I think people are concerned," Mr Bezzina told The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

Australian National University international relations senior lecturer Mike McKinley said new devices were flooding the market, such as locks that will go red if they have been tampered with.

Dr McKinley said anxieties had more to do with drugs than terrorism.

"The more that cases like the Corby case get publicity, people will be concerned. Twenty years ago, you could leave your bags unlocked from here to London - You'd be out of your mind to do that these days," he said.

Mr Bezzina said some of the methods available, such as plastic wrapping or locking luggage, posed problems at other airports, particularly in the United States.

"A bag needs to be able to be opened - the US has regulations around this - and if people choose the wrong bag, it's just going to get busted open anyway," he said.

- NZPA