Post Bikie Fracas OZ Editorial

Keelty must respond to airport outrage March 24, 2009 The Australian

Police were unprepared for a brawl, let alone a bomber

WHO does Mick Keelty think he's kidding with his claim Sydney airport security was "acceptable" on Sunday when two gangs of feuding bikies fought in the domestic terminal? Whatever the Australian Federal Police Commissioner thinks, it is not acceptable for brutes to brawl in what should be the securest public place in the city. It is not acceptable for ordinary Australians to be caught up in the equivalent of a cage fight, and be forced to witness a man being beaten to death. It is not acceptable for the permanent police presence at the airport to be so slow they were informed of the fight by a triple-0 phone call and still to have allowed some of the men involved in the brawl to make their getaways by taxi. And it is not acceptable for officialdom, including Mr Keelty, federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland and NSW Premier Nathan Rees to respond with announcements of reports and reviews. We know what happened, and we know why it happened. The issue is how to stop it happening again, and on the basis of Mr Keelty's response there is scant cause for comfort about safety at Sydney airport. According to Mr Keelty, the police cannot be everywhere. But they must be at airports in sufficient numbers to patrol the terminals and to act immediately. No ifs, no buts. Security was breached on Sunday by men without weapons intent on settling a score among themselves. But what would have happened if a group of gunmen had opened fire before passing security?

What makes Mr Keelty's relaxed response more extraordinary is that Sydney airport safety obviously has not improved since 2005, when The Australian revealed a classified Customs report warning about shoddy security. The then transport minister, John Anderson, responded in much the same way Mr Keelty is doing now, by initially ducking the real issue, before being forced to bring in John Wheeler, an international aviation security expert. The Wheeler Report was scathing: "Policing at major airports in Australia is often inadequate and dysfunctional, and security systems are typically unco-ordinated," it said. Sir John proposed more police and additional security cameras at the busiest airports, plus integrated command structures to reduce the bureaucratic turf-fights and commonwealth-state conflicts that left airports inadequately unprotected. Mr McClelland, then Labor's homeland security spokesman, supported the report, saying something must be done. And the Howard government agreed, promising a raft of reforms in co-operation with the states. But while much was promised, little was delivered. Last May, by which time Mr McClelland had become one of the responsible ministers, Steve Creedy and Natalie O'Brien reported in The Australian that the co-ordinated security recommended in the Wheeler Report was not in place, and that state and federal police, plus the Australian Protective Service, were all arguing over who did what. And with the way Mr Keelty is trying to duck for cover and Mr Rees is promising more police for the state's gang squad, it seems certain everybody involved will again claim that if anybody is to blame, it isn't them. Certainly there are many issues to argue about in the aftermath of Sunday's brawl, including whether other states need South Australian-style legislation intended to stop bikies assembling, and whether the Australian Crime Commission, with just 15 full-time investigators, can provide enough over-arching intelligence on organised crime across state borders. But what happened on Sunday is straightforward. On a day when the media was reporting that warring Sydney gangs were bringing reinforcements from interstate, police at the airport were not watching for trouble.

Sunday's outrage does more than demonstrate how the authorities are not ready to protect airports, surely our prime terror targets. It also illuminates a police culture focused on back-covering. The only action undertaken with enthusiasm after the Wheeler Report was the prosecution of former Customs officer Alan Kessing, who still says he is innocent, for leaking the security warning. The AFP's persecution of Mohamed Haneef, unjustly alleged to be part of a terrorist conspiracy in 2007, similarly reflected a desire in the AFP to protect police reputations. Mr Kessing was convicted and Dr Haneef hounded out of the country, and all for nothing. Rather than pursuing people who may or may not be whistleblowers and searching for scapegoats, it is time for the agencies charged with protecting us from terror and organised violence to focus on the real risks. It appears no innocent Australians were hurt at Sydney airport - but it's no thanks to the people charged with protecting them.