stifle

Australia only uses MMW. No backscatter.

Himeno

The bill is scheduled to be debated in the House on Monday (21st). It appears on the House Notice Paper as Government Business - Orders of the Day 8 No third reading mentioned, so hopefully no vote at this state, although that could change on Monday. Third reading could happen on Tuesday, they only have the notice paper one sitting day ahead. Won't see the Tuesday paper until Monday afternoon.

Taking a more detailed look at the sitting schedule, it doesn't appear that the Senate will be back until 18 June. The next two sitting weeks (May 21-24, May 28-31) are showing the Senate as "Senate Budget Estimates sitting". So, although the senate report should have been handed over by now, it likely won't be publicly available for another month.

Himeno

Debate on the bill is showing on today's notice paper, but doesn't appear on the daily program.
The orders of the day to be debated prior to the Aviation Security Bill mostly relate to the budget, and that is likely to take quite some time.
I'll keep an eye on the live minutes, but if they even have the time to debate this today, it looks like it will happen late this afternoon.

8pm, and they've interrupted government business and returned to private members business. Unless they debate the bill between 9:30 and 10:30pm, they aren't doing it today. Will have to see if it is on tomorrows notice paper - once it gets published.


At least this might give some time for the MPs I sent emails to yesterday to read them.

Himeno

House debate on the bill is listed on today's daily program and notice paper as item 5. Government business is planned to occur between 4:40pm and 9:30pm. There are 6 items on today's list. The daily program entry allows for a vote to occur after debate.

I got some replies back. The Greens are opposed to the bill. Auto/staffer replies from 2 of the independents I contacted (just confirming receipt of email). The reply from my own senators staff was somewhat dismissive stating no useful reply without proving you live in the senators electorate.

BadgerBoi

Thanks again Himeno for the effort you are putting into these updates.

Himeno

They got stuck debating item 4 on the daily program and are now having the adjournment debate. This means that the aviation security bill is likely to be item 1 or 2 for tomorrow (won't know until the notice paper and daily program is released tomorrow morning around 8am).

However, I have work tomorrow so I won't be able to keep track of what is happening or watch any debate on the live internet feed.
Live Minutes: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_...inutes_-_House (basic details of current happenings - detailed transcript is posted in online Hansard the following day)
Live Feed: http://www.aph.gov.au/News_and_Events/Watch_Parliament
Tomorrows sitting starts at 9am Eastern Australian time

Himeno

Just got home from work and checked the minutes. They started debating the bill at 1136 this morning and were still going at 1345 when it was interrupted for question time. 10 speakers so far, will have to wait until the Hansard is put up tomorrow to know what was said.
They should be resuming debate on it later this afternoon.

They also tabled a bill this morning to change the Passenger Movement Charge to $55 departure tax from July 1 with changes each following year based on CPI.

Debate resumed:
Paul Neville (Nationals MP) speaking now. Bringing up Lockerbie and 9/11. says "The coalition does not oppose this bill" T_T They've fallen for the trash the department gave them.

They are finishing up debate now. I contacted Civil Liberties Australia to let them know what was going on. It sounds like the bill will pass , but CLA thinks there will be protests come 30 June - 1 July when they start forcing people into them.
Albanese has just added an amendment "as asked by the senate committee" which clarified the privacy clauses already existing.
Was moved to the third reading right away, so now it is off to the senate, where hopefully the Greens can do something.

Himeno

Transcripts of the bill discussion yesterday.
I don't think I really want to read all of these after watching the second half of it last night. What I listened to last night still makes me feel sick.

Truss, Warren: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Mitchell, Rob: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Baldwin, Bob: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Jones, Stephen: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Prentice, Jane: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Hayes, Chris: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Andrews, Karen: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Georganas, Steve: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Griggs, Natasha: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Lyons, Geoff: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Neville, Paul: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Elliot, Justine: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
McCormack, Michael: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Chester, Darren: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Simpkins, Luke: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22
Albanese, Anthony: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22

Amendment to bill: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/...e04e%2F0176%22

It appears that having a scanner taken to parliament house for MPs to trial is what convinced many of them to support it.

I already contacted my rep and told him that as he has supported this bill, he no longer has my vote.

LucyAnne

Its a pity more of the public didn't write submissions objecting to the "no opt out" to the Senate Inquiry. There needs to be a public outrage about this before anything could or would be done about it.

Only thing now is for anyone on this site who doesn't want to be forced into a body scanner to write to your local Federal Member immediately.

Still can't believe Australia is going down this path when even the US and all of Europe has a provision for alternative screening.

Himeno

I'm not sure that would do anything. I've contacted a number of MPs and senators and, other then a single reply from the Greens, gotten nothing of any substance back. Most replies were automated, anything human generated was basically "go away".

I've also asked the same thing here a number of times and no one has said anything.

RadioGirl

I read all the speeches you linked to, and I agree; there's no argument they'd listen to. Both the gov't and the opposition were completely sold over by the scaremongering description of the underwear bomber (almost every speaker retold the story, with many also reminding us of 9/11 ) nevermind that experts have said the NoS wouldn't have caught him.

They'd been assured that the MMW does not pose health risks (with which I agree) and that the use of the generic stick figure would protect privacy (with which I mostly agree). The gimmick of bringing the scanner into Parliament House so they could all have a play seemed to have worked; one guy excitedly described going back to his office to get a little knife, hiding it in his sock, but, wow gee whiz, that scanner found it right away. ( x 1e6)

A very few mentioned community concern about the scanner being slow and/or leading to 43% patdowns anyway, but the proponents of the bill had convinced them that this was because passengers were not used to removing watches, jewelry, hairclips, etc etc etc and that the false positives would decrease and the speed would improve as people got used to the technology. I can't believe that the idiots in the House swallowed this argument; you only have to watch passengers set off the WTMD now to see that they won't "get used to" taking tissues out of pockets and removing jewelry.

There was almost no discussion of the fact that the scanners are ineffective; I think Truss may have mentioned it (oh, lord, I'm not going to go read it again) but then said, in essence, "yeah, but you've got to do something to protect us from the Bad Guys, so we'll try this."

No mention of embarrassment for people with innocent items like insulin pumps or sanitary pads, and no mention of the risk of theft of belongings while you're standing in the machine.

Time will tell whether there's a "public outrage" or not. Most Australians I've talked to don't seem too concerned.

Himeno

Most Australian's I've talked to don't understand just what the scanner is. Those that do are as pissed off about this as I am.

I sent an email to my MP last week stating that as he supported the bill, he no longer has my support. I just got a reply.

I sent back a reply stating that the Minister’s rationale was flawed and detailed why it was flawed.

guflyer

Is there any hope for the bill not passing in the Senate (or at least allowing opt-out)? Is there anyone specifically who should be contacted, or is it hopeless? Does this mean that flying out of Australia is ruined, or is there any hope?

Himeno

It depends if we can convince enough senators of the truth, or at least get them to ask some more pointed questions (such as "why does the Minister want scanners to combat the threat of underwear bombs when the scanners are not capable of detecting them?").
There is also the petition option, but that may be problematic as the vocal opposition to this bill is spread all over the country and they don't accept electronic petitions. http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliame...11_-_Petitions

It would have been useful if there were public committee hearings on this, but neither committee had public hearings . (As for committees, the senate committee report was extended again and is now due to report today instead of 2 weeks ago)

Contact your senators, all 12 of them (or 2 if you're in ACT or NT :/). The more the better. http://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_M...-1&gen=0&ps=10

This is part of the email I got from the Greens last week. (if you send an email amount this to any of the Greens senators, they will forward it to Senator Scott Ludlam)
With the Greens wanting to "canvas broad community views on the issue", they may be the best to contact, but still contact the other senators for your state.

It depends how they are employed. Everything I've seen so far appears that they'd be random secondary. But if that means "random" like ETD currently (where they grab the next person coming off the baggage xray and keep to a quota) is or "random" like at LHR (where very few people seem to get grabbed) is another story.

The next senate sitting is on the 18th. I'd be willing to bet this gets put on the Senate daily program/agenda for then.

Just saw this on the senate committee inquiry page, which wasn't there last time I looked last week.
I can't be sure, but... I think my submission may have been why it was extended again. After reading the house report and seeing that the Senate reporting date was extended, I emailed the committee secretary asking if I could still make a submission. He called me the next day and I wrote and sent a short submission that night (it was shorter then I had first planned based on what the secretary told me on the phone).

LucyAnne

The Senate Report is out. The first recommendation is that there be an "opt out" clause included in the Bill. There are 3 other recommendations.
People I have spoken to recently are quite shocked when they realise there is the possibility they will be forced into these scanners. Friends overseas also had decided if legislation forcing them into the scanners is introduced here, Australia will be off their list of travel destinations. I hope the Government takes notice of these recommendations and does the right thing by the Australian people.