Admittedly ‘inappropriate’ behaviour by a customs officer over seizing – and using – a passenger’s mobile phone is being investigated, but very slowly and secretly. We the people deserves more transparency.
Secrecy undermines democracy
Severe doubt is again being raised about security at Sydney airport and abiding by the rule of law within government departments after the latest bout of apparently scandalous – officially “inappropriate” – behaviour by Australian Customs and Border Protection authorities.
A customs officer at Sydney international airport last year confiscated a mobile phone from a passenger during a baggage search: he used it secretly to send and receive messages without the passenger’s knowledge.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has referred the November 2014 incident to the Australian Federal Police. The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has refused to release further details.
The passenger, a 22-year-old man whom customs apparently thought may have been travelling to/from Syria for illegitimate reasons, received a letter from the integrity and professional standards branch of the department saying it was investigating the “inappropriate use” of his phone by the customs officer.
PHOTO: Officer of customs operation at work.
The letter, dated nearly six months later, said: “This behaviour does not uphold the standards expected of our officers at the border and on behalf of the department and the ACBPS [Australian Customs and Border Protection Service] I apologise that it occurred. The letter said the “appropriate steps” were being taken in relation to the incident.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection refused requests for information by Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws in part to protect the privacy of the officer and would not reveal what the messages said, who they were sent to and why.
The continuing refusal of the Abbott government to answer reasonable media and public questions about the behaviour of government departments and officials is becoming a major concern. Secrecy undermines democracy.
A customs spokesman said: “Under section 186 of the Customs Act 1901, officers have the power to examine goods in certain circumstances. ‘Goods’ includes electronic devices, such as mobile telephones. Access to the passenger’s phone was consistent with the act.”
But it wasn’t: official powers of search, even when extended to electronic devices, are to determine if the person subject to customs controls is carrying any goods which are dutiable, restricted or prohibited. Relying on those powers to confirm or deny suspicions relating to views or opinions in relation to Syria and the Middle East would appear to be a significant over-reach in 2014.
There is also the possibility the junior customs officer misused the phone because his own was or is monitored by internal customs ‘spies’.
The new Border Force (colloquially known as the BooF-heads), just one month old, should perhaps ask Allan Kessing to inform and assist them. He is the former Australian customs officer who, heroically in 2005, stood up against graft, corruption, drug smuggling and crooks at Sydney airport…only to be prosecuted by standover merchants within the Australian government, instead of being rewarded for his professionalism in revealing the extent of the problems.
Kessing is personally hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket, and should be recompensed by the government, and awarded honours.
As a result of his two reports on the atrocious security regime at Sydney airport, the government eventually spent about $300m on security upgrades, substantially increasing the presence of armed officers at major airports in large numbers to try to regain control of the out-of-sight “airside” operations, confirmed as highly exposed to compromise by criminal gangs. http://tinyurl.com/ojernd9
– Bill Rowlings, CEO of Civil Liberties Australia