Hysteria in the air

Friday, 22 Nov, 2005 0

The pollies are at it again with outrage over Senator Amanda Vanstone’s comments last week that said some aviation security measures were more about making people feel better than improving security.

Opposition homeland security spokesman Arch Bevis has labelled Senator Vanstone’s comments as silly, and called for her resignation.

“Senator Amanda Vanstone’s extraordinary outburst that airport security was a sham to make the public feel good, has made a mockery of the Howard government’s credibility in this important area of counter-terrorism,” he said.

“Amanda Vanstone’s cavalier approach to border security and the protection of the travelling public makes her unfit to remain as a minister.”

Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley says Senator Vanstone is not fit to be a Minister. “Afraid to say, Amanda ain’t up to it,” he said.

Senator Vanstone today defended her comments – “If the day has come when a minister can’t say what every other Australian says, and that is that plastic knives drive us crazy, I think we’re in dire straits,” she told ABC radio.

“I have simply expressed a view about plastic knives that I think every Australian who travels has at one point expressed,” she said.

Qantas said that metal knives may soon be back on board. “We have been advised that the Government is reviewing this particular measure and we support that,” Qantas’s head of security Geoff Askew said.

Good on her for speaking her mind and stating the folly of something we all know. Until we start screening at all regional airports in Australia, then let’s just accept that some things are there for the pr effect and get on with our lives without the mock hysteria and faux moral indignation.

The Mole

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Graham Muldoon

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