Fears border security still has major gaps

CANBERRA - Australia is moving to further tighten security at its ports and airports against failures that continue to leave the country vulnerable to organised crime and terrorism.

Despite moves to protect transport hubs that handle billions of dollars of trade and tens of millions of passengers a year, a series of reports has identified potentially dangerous holes in the nation's borders.

Key measures, including special security passes to sensitive maritime and aviation zones introduced after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, have not plugged the holes, and important recommendations of a review of airport security have yet to be fully implemented.

The joint parliamentary committee on the Australian Crime Commission has now begun an inquiry into the effectiveness of measures to protect borders from serious and organised criminal activity.

Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland also announced yesterday reforms designed to streamline and bring into a single package the 35 separate pieces of Commonwealth law governing maritime enforcement powers.

New laws expected to be introduced to Parliament next year will establish comprehensive powers, including interdiction, boarding, search, seizure and retention of vessels.

"The bill will provide a unified and comprehensive suite of powers that will be available to enforce a diverse range of Australia's laws, including illegal foreign fishing, customs, quarantine and drug trafficking," McClelland said.

Security at ports and airports was dramatically increased after the September 11 attacks, but they remain exposed to crime and potential terrorism - confirmed in a crime commission report this year that pointed to the presence of crime syndicates at major transport hubs.

This month an Office of Transport Security report found that one of the main elements of border security - maritime security identity cards - was seriously flawed.

The cards provide background checks that allow holders to work unescorted or unmonitored in maritime security zones, including port employees, wharfies, train and truck drivers and sailors. Similar cards are required for airports.

But the transport security report found that the screening was failing to uncover offences with known linkages to terrorism, including racketeering, blackmail, major weapons violations, explosives and theft.

Transport Department figures showed that 20 per cent of the more than 12,500 workers who had applied for a security card had criminal records, but only 41 were refused a card.

The Crime Commission said most major organised crime groups, who between them cost Australia at least A$10 billion ($12.2 billion) last year, had international connections, and that the transport sector was the most exposed to their activities.

In 2007-08 about 650kg of cocaine was seized at the nation's borders - most of it at sea ports - while about 80 per cent of the almost 1 tonne of heroin uncovered was found at major airports.

Airport security was stepped up in 2005 after British export Sir John Wheeler described policing as inadequate and dysfunctional and riddled with "significant threats and vulnerabilities".

In a finding repeated in this month's transport security report, Wheeler warned that staff could be bribed to ignore crime or to help drug trafficking or theft, opening them to later blackmail by terrorists.