SYDNEY Airport chief:Ease quarantine to shorten queues

[Niko]

Ease quarantine to shorten queues: airport chief

December 06, 2007 10:00pm
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<!-- // .story-tools --> <!-- // #article-header --> SYDNEY Airport Corporation chairman Max Moore-Wilton wants an easing of quarantine regulations to shorten passenger queues at arrival checkpoints.
<!-- // #article-intro --> Mr Moore-Wilton said today incoming travellers should not have to put up with the current long queues at Australian airports, especially in Sydney.
He called for a "risk-based assessment" of passengers and the potential threat to Australia's biosecurity.

Current quarantine regulations were over the top and could ultimately damage Australia's tourism industry, he said.

"It's damaging (because) it's massively inefficient, it's massively costly ... secondly it's our tourism industry," Mr Moore-Wilton told ABC radio.
"People don't have to come to Australia.

"We in fact are losing tourists from a number of places.

"It's part of the general issue of: are we a welcoming place to visit?"

He said the SARs virus outbreak several years ago had shown that Australia, when necessary, was able to implement stringent checks.

"After you pass through customs and after you've collected your baggage the average person around the world leaves the airport," he said.

"In Australia you then queue again to have your bags checked by AQIS (Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service)."

He said the measures were introduced in 2001 following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain, but there was now no immediate risk to Australia's biosecurity.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,22885324-5014090,00.html

 

[Niko]

Re: SYDNEY Airport chief:Ease quarantine to shorten queues

Quarantine too tough, says airport chief

Jano Gibson Urban Affairs Reporter
December 7, 2007


AUSTRALIAN quarantine regulations for international passengers were a "massive overkill" and arrivals should not have to put up with long queues at quarantine checkpoints, says the Sydney Airport Corporation chairman, Max Moore-Wilton.

He called for the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service's stringent target of checking at least 80 per cent of all luggage to be eased.

"Very clearly we know that 80 per cent of the passengers are not at risk in terms of importing food stuffs or risky materials, so they [AQIS] have a regime which is far in excess of the risk," he said.

Mr Moore-Wilton, a former head of the Department of the Prime Minister, told the Herald that delays caused by excessive screening for exotic pests and diseases were one of three things he had identified that damage Sydney's reputation as a welcoming city.

"After you collect your bags sometimes people can be in the queue for 30 or 40 minutes after they might have been on a 20-hour flight from Europe. You don't face this anywhere else in the world. It makes people very frustrated. There needs to be a quarantine regime but it needs to be far more risk-assessed."

He said only people who declared that they were carrying food products or banned items, or had travelled to areas considered a quarantine risk, should have mandatory baggage checks. For those who said they were not carrying anything risky, there should be only random checks.

"Obviously you need to have random checking to make sure people are telling the truth but you don't treat people [as if they] are in fact lying to you after they say they are not bringing in any product," he said.

An quarantine spokesman, Carson Creagh, said the service could not and would not rely simply on declarations.

"We're aware of delays and infrastructure problems at Sydney Airport and, while we sympathise with passengers ? we make no apology for our role in managing the risk of exotic pests and diseases that could be carried in passengers' baggage."

The Nationals leader in NSW, Andrew Stoner, said Mr Moore-Wilton was putting airport profits ahead of bio-security.

"I can understand it's certainly in the interest of Max Moore-Wilton and Macquarie Airports to have more people move faster through Sydney International Airport but it's not in the interests of rural communities to have any increase in the risk of exotic diseases entering Australia," Mr Stoner said.

"I think a lot of city people don't understand. We are talking about a $9 billion agriculture sector in NSW alone that is at risk on a daily basis from exotic diseases."

The quarantine service's 80 per cent intervention target was set by the Government after a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain in 2001. One-fifth of quarantine breaches were committed by people who had not declared anything and Australian passengers accounted for 20 per cent of all infringements, Mr Creagh said.

Mr Moore-Wilton said that other factors creating a negative experience for passengers arriving in Sydney were a lack of taxis during peak hour and an overcrowded and expensive airport rail service.

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/12/06/1196812922159.html