Terrorism Lessons Poorly Learnt
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday September 23, 2005
There was an attempted plane hijack by Peruvian revolutionaries back in 1931. In 1955 an American blew up a plane with a bomb in his mother's luggage, hoping to collect her insurance. In the 1950s and '60s scores of hijackings between the United States and Cuba followed the Cuban revolution. Then the Palestinians hijacked their first plane in 1968. Terrorism in the air is nothing new. That is why Sir John Wheeler's report on security shortcomings at Australian airports is so shocking.
Not that the Prime Minister, John Howard, sees it that way. Mr Howard would have it that the Wheeler report is "a positive assessment", though it does "identify some areas where airport security could be improved". What understatement. The areas to be improved are central, and their past neglect shameful. It is hard to understand why things are so lax when reviews of Australian airports, like hijackings, are nothing new. There have been many reports, including a critical appraisal of Sydney Airport by NSW Police before the 2000 Olympics. The Australian Government should not have needed an expert from England to direct its attention to the obvious. The Wheeler report exposes airport security as little better than a sham. How else to describe a situation where passengers and their hand luggage are closely examined while the cargo on passenger planes is never checked? When it comes to policing and security at airports, Sir John finds no one is in charge, no one sees the big picture. Policing is often inadequate and dysfunctional. Security is unco-ordinated because the state and federal agencies supposed to protect airports do not share information. Instead of co-operation, there is competition, particularly between police and intelligence services. Crime flourishes. While the good guys are jealously watching each other, thieves are making off with the passengers' luggage, cars and other valuables. Sir John offers the ominous warning that crime is a gateway for terrorism; employees compromised by crime can be blackmailed into much worse. And the report has so very much more. Alarmingly, the worst failings are at Australia's biggest airport, Sydney, with its 26 million passengers a year. Mr Howard's attempt to put a gloss on the report's findings was half-hearted; the real measure of his concern was the $200 million he committed to fixing the problems laid out in the Wheeler report. Mr Howard would surely not have dared release the report without such a pledge of practical counter measures. To this welcome commitment of money to beef up airport security and beat crime, Mr Howard must add firm and continuing leadership. Clearly, airport security has been yet another victim of the fragmentation of effort and purpose too often a part of Australia's federal system. Yet aviation is a federal responsibility. Canberra must lead the way in creating a climate of co-operation with the states so that the many agencies involved in airport security become more concerned with protecting Australia than their own turf.
© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald