Photo ID to board plane

Airport security upgrades

TRAVELLERS could be forced to show photo identification before boarding domestic flights under a major security overhaul being considered by the Federal Government.

The tough rules have been discussed by senior government figures in recent months, News Corp is reporting.

It is understood mandatory ID checks will not be enforced immediately but the plan is more likely to be given the green light once the government’s new Home Affairs office — which will bring together security and law enforcement agencies — is operational.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the government had an open mind and “if there was a requirement to do that to keep the Australian people safe then obviously we would do that”.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten backed ID checks, adding extra resources were needed to beef up airport security so passengers were not “unduly inconvenienced”.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said yesterday the government had to be “constantly upgrading and improving our security services”.

“That’s why I always say we don’t ‘set and forget’. We are never complacent,” Mr Turnbull said.

He said more thorough bag checks at airports, put in place after the weekend’s counterterror operation in Sydney and which have led to major delays at airports, would remain in place as security agencies reviewed the threat level.

The alleged NSW terror plot to bring down a plane may have involved an improvised bomb inside a meat grinder or poisonous gas, but authorities remain tight-lipped.

Detectives spent yesterday searching five properties in the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl that were raided at the weekend.

The men, named in media as fathers and sons Khaled and Mahmoud Khayat and Khaled and Abdul Merhi, continue to be questioned after being arrested on Saturday.

News Corp reports the group planned to use either a bomb hidden in a meat grinder or a device to disseminate poisonous gas on a plane.

“I don’t want to go into the detail but . . . there was a significant threat that Federal police, ASIO, NSW police and other agencies dealt with and are in the process of dealing with,” Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said yesterday.

Mr Turnbull described the conspiracy as “a very serious terrorist plot”.

Federal police seized part of a domestic meat grinder and a box containing a multi-mincer for making sausages from one of the men’s homes, News Corp reported.