Airport scanners will 'respect people's privacy': Albanese

15/03/2012 - Body scanners planned to boost security at Australia's international airports won't be as revealing as some people might fear.

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Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says the modesty problem has been overcome and the scanners will respect people's privacy, unlike those at US airports.

"Every male outline looks like every other male; every female outline looks like every other female," Albanese told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

"These are just generic outlines that overcome people's concerns about privacy."

The screening technology was the most advanced in the world and would show metallic and non-metallic items under a person's clothing, he said.

Albanese said the images could not be copied or stored.

Concerns about radiation from the machines were also allayed, because levels were thousands of times less than the amount received in a single mobile phone call.

"You can get more radiation sitting on a plane than you will going through one of these body scanners," he said.

Federal MPs in Canberra can test a scanner during this week and next.

The government introduced legislation in February to make body scans part of the screening process for departing international passengers, following a successful trial at Sydney and Melbourne airports.

If the legislation clears parliament, the commonwealth will contribute $7 million as part of a $28 million package for new screening measures at Australia's eight international airports: Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Source: AAP NewsWire

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Have your say...

Kermit | 15/03/2012 11:37 1

Let sanity prevail, take a look at fashion and tell me if privacy is the big issue here, anything that speeds up the process of getting through an airport is fine by most regular business travellers. The new automated Passport system is brilliant, bring on the technology. The public freely give up their privacy to the world on Facebook, why then would personal safety NOT be gratefully accepted with a quick body scan...double standards anonymous! For those who have "image problems" maybe a full internal-external body and cavity search could be offered as an alternative.

Blabla. | 10/05/2012 13:23 2

These milimetre scaners "rip apart" DNA (google.)They have been shown to be able to store images and there have been countless violations of rights, women being sexually assaulted and having their pictures stored etc. THe above comment (KERMIT) is very ignorant.

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