AUSTRALIA is set early next year to introduce strict new rules on airline hand baggage, including limiting the amount of liquids carried on board by passengers, as well as defining how they are to be carried on board.
The measures, considered by cabinet's national security committee earlier this month, follow a review of aviation security in the wake of the foiled British plot in August of this year to bring down US-bound airliners using liquid-based explosives.
The upgraded regime will mirror new rules introduced in November across the 25-nation European Union, which restricts passengers to carrying no more than 100ml of liquid per container.
Containers with substances including drinks, creams, perfumes, sprays, gels and toothpaste will be required to be carried in a resealable transparent plastic bag.
Exceptions will be made for passengers with medical conditions and baby food intended to be consumed on board.
The EU regulations allow the purchase of duty-free alcohol and perfumes after security checks have been carried out.
The new procedures will involve more lengthy queues for departing passengers as checking of cabin baggage will have to be done by hand.
Aviation security experts estimate it will be at least 18 months before new-generation screening technology will become available allowing automatic checking of hand baggage.
An inter-departmental committee chaired by the Prime Minister's department has been reviewing aviation security in the wake of the terror plot uncovered by British authorities in August.
While security officials stress that Australian aviation does not face a similar threat to that faced in Britain, the Government has decided to harmonise its rules with the emerging international standard.
The Howard Government is also examining new ways of pre-flight screening for passengers including behavioural pattern recognition or profiling in which certain travellers are subject to more rigorous security checks as they prepare to board their aircraft.
Behavioural pattern recognition is already used routinely by Israel and has been trialled in the US and Britain.
A key issue for the Government is how such a system would be run, with the industry expecting that only government agencies, rather than private security firms, could administer it.
The cabinet meeting also discussed exemptions for visiting VIPs, which would allow them to bypass some of the security checks applying to ordinary travellers.
The special provision for VIPs is being introduced in the lead-up to next year's APEC meetings, which will involve the biggest influx of foreign government leaders and officials ever to visit Australia.
Screening of checked baggage on domestic flights will become mandatory at Australia's 11 major airports from next August 1.
A parliamentary report on aviation security tabled last week recommended a firm timetable be set for screening of all air cargo on passenger aircraft where passengers' checked baggage is screened. Its report called on the Department of Transport to consider the feasibility of screening air cargo on aircraft where passengers' checked baggage is screened by the August deadline.