New Airport Security Bill Introduced to Federal Parliament
Friday 12 October 2018 @ 2.51 p.m. | Crime | Legal Research
The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Police Powers at Airports) Bill 2018 (Cth) (“the Bill”) was introduced to the House of Representatives by Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton on 12 September 2018. The Bill is currently before the House of Representatives.
The Bill proposes to make amendments to the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) and the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 (Cth).
Background
The Bill’s purpose is to enhance powers at major airports to ensure constables and Protective Service Officers (“PSOs”) can engage with persons at the earliest opportunity to assess any potential threat and/or risk to public safety, and direct a person to leave, or not to take flights to or from, these airports where appropriate.
The introduction of the Bill is in response to recent terrorism-related events both overseas and domestically, with these events have shown that airports are a high-profile and high-impact target for terrorists.
Currently, the Government says that constables and PSOs do not have adequate powers to engage with persons at airports to assess a potential risk or threat at the earliest opportunity.
Outline of the Amendments
The proposed amendments will allow constables or PSOs to:
- direct a person to produce evidence of their identity (“identity check direction”);
- direct a person to leave the airport premises or the premises of any specified major airport, and/or not take a specified flight or any flight from these airports, for up to 24 hours (“move-on direction”); and
- direct a person to stop or do anything else necessary to facilitate an identity check or move-on direction (“ancillary direction”).
According to the Bill’s Explanatory Memorandum:
Reaction and Comment to the Bill
Senator David Leyonhjelm said of the Bill and the proposed amendments:
Australian Greens Senator, Jordon Steele-John has also raised concerns over the proposed new legislation. Speaking to The Guardian Australia the Senator commented:
The Senator also said overreach on data collection is “happening all the time.”
Allegations of Seizure of Personal Electronic Devices
The Guardian Australia has also reported that a British software developer had his password-protected laptop and phone seized by Australian Border Force (“ABF”) officers in early 2018, as he travelled through Sydney Airport. The ABF would not say whether any files had been copied, but did inspect his devices.
The passenger believed the ABF had cracked his laptop password and inspected his files. The passenger said he was detained apparently at random for 90 minutes while the officers took his phone and password-protected laptop into a back room.
The ABF acknowledged that the passenger's devices were examined, but declined to comment on whether the files had been copied. A spokesperson for the ABF said at the time:
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Sources:
Crimes Legislation Amendment (Police Powers at Airports) Bill 2018 (Cth)- Bill and supporting information available from TimeBase LawOne Service.