/ Cory Doctorow / 1:59 am Fri Dec 18, 2009

Australian fliers will get their cutlery and knitting needles back

Australia's aviation authority has announced a return to sanity, allowing nail files, umbrellas and metal cutlery on its planes, saying that it will focus instead on "real risks."
The changes will see passengers again allowed to carry some sharp implements, such as nail files and clippers, umbrellas, crochet and knitting needles on board aircraft from July next year.

Metal cutlery will return to return to cabin meals and airport restaurants following Government recognition that security arrangements must be targeted at 'real risks'.

The best secondary customs screening I ever had was in Brisbane. We got off the plane and were directed to secondary. I told the customs guard that Alice was pregnant and he practically ran to get her a chair and a glass of water while we waited. Shortly thereafter, two customs agents came over and asked us a few simple questions ("where are you staying, why are you here?") in a friendly tone and then told us we were done. I thought they were just passing the time of day before the screening -- they were so incredibly nice, the way Canadians are meant to be (except when you cross a border, where they turn into total bastards in the name of ensuring that you don't cheat the government out of its national sales tax).

Carry-on restrictions to be relaxed (via Schneier)

(Image: TSA Screener with Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Case, a Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike image from Mobile Edge Laptop Cases' photostream)

Previously:

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  1. Just remember to eat any food in your luggage before entering Australia.

    They really don’t like you bringing food products (or plants and livestock) into the country. Indeed, even within Australia, transporting plants/food between states is illegal under some circumstances.

    (Yes, there’s a reason: they have a real problem with non-native insects, fungi, and other parasites, and don’t want to import any new ones. But nothing tells you you’re on a new continent like the signs in Customs that warn you the penalty for importing bananas is comparable with what you’d see in the US for importing drugs.)

    1. NZ is the same, bless. NZ: no fruit and vege. US/EU: no drugs and bombs.

      Even the dogs reflect this. Cuddly Beagles in NZ/Aus. Fur coated razor blades in US/EU.

      Asia, no questions asked (which, as an Antipodean, freaked me some what).

      1. An article I read about the “Beagle Brigade” several years ago actually said that AQIS uses the breed partly because they’re such non-threatening looking dogs.

  2. And there’s the rub. We relax draconian customs rules and suggest we will implement draconian Internet filtering rules. We’ve got the best of both worlds here. You and yours’ are welcome back anytime Cory.

  4. I also have to admit that while everybody complains about these guys I really appreciate them. I came back from South Africa with a pair of very muddy boots. The customs officer took them into the back room, washed and scrubbed them clean with a toothbrush and gave them back. How’s that for service!

  5. I also had a great experience with Australian customs. They asked me what I had to declare and I told them “almost everything.”

    The kind customs official went through a suitcase full of cheap souvenirs and did her best to let stuff through. She was really knowledgeable – she knew which types of pork-floss and plant fibre were allowed and which were not. I ended up being able to bring almost all of my weird food into Australia. I also got a free shoe cleaning!

  6. AFAIK, and, YMMV, that Checkpoint Friendly Laptop Bags/Cases, aren’t checkpoint friendly at all… at least on my last travels around Europe I’ve been asked to take my laptop out, and put it on a different tray of all my other items.

    I’ve even been seen how in Mexico all people was asked to open the lid of their laptops (maybe they wanted to see how clean my keys are?)…

  7. Visit sunny California where you get the best of both worlds. No fruits and veggies, and we’re terrified for you water bottle too.

    Australia has a lot of unique flora and fauna, I can see the dangers of importing new species. California has a lot of agricultural production, which is terrified of new bugs and diseases.

  8. the way Canadians are meant to be (except when you cross a border, where they turn into total bastards in the name of ensuring that you don’t cheat the government out of its national sales tax).

    ..or badmouth their olympics.

  10. I had a similar experience in Brisbane; it was the model of civility and professional security. I even had one of those swab samplings done, but in the context of being treated like a human, it was actually enjoyable. Or maybe it just seemed so professional after having left LAX and its ridiculous security theatre…

  12. Aussie customs treated Alice so well because Australia is full of REAL MEN who don’t hide behind senseless rules and regulations, and who know how to show respect to ladies in need. Oh, if only we could get them to come train the TSA…

  13. I had a TERRIBLE experience with Canadian customs. We had been completely rerouted to go from Rome to Paris to Montreal to Philly, and the Montreal customs officials were the worst I’ve ever had. One of my companions had to look in her bag to find her boarding pass and so stuck her passport in her mouth (since we couldn’t put anything down or ask someone else to hold stuff). The officer yelled at her for attempting to pass a contagion on to a government official. As far as I know, she wasn’t even sick.

  14. Two anecdotes:

    1) 6 years ago, returning from India. Realized I had a delicious pomegranate I had been saving all flight. Pomegranates in India are really different from those in the states, they put them to shame. Sit down before customs to eat it, figure it will be no problem.

    Shortly have a few very rude agents and a little beagle take us into a back room. Interogate us for an hour, tear our bags apart, ask all kinds of personal questions.

    “If I was a pomegranage smuggler, why would I be eating my only one before customs?” No sense of humor. Miserable experience. More than an hour wasted. Welcome back to America, sucker.

    2. In Korea, last week, boarded a flight to Seoul. I’d been eating pineapple all week, and forgot that I had an 8″ kitchen knife right in my backpack. Attitude of the agents? Polite, understanding, non-accusatory, professional. Offer to check it separately, I can pick it up in the airport on the other side. No big deal, sign a piece of paper, and I get it back. A perfectly civilized process…

    Is it really that hard?

  15. Unfortunately Canada will not be able to follow the same route as Australia with this – our systems and routes and travel patterns are so linked to the US that it’s not possible.

    So, when I fly to the US I go through security for what is basically a shuttle service to Palm Springs and have to endure all the contortions they require of you to get through (why I have to take off my slip-on loafers that weigh, like 4 oz, is beyond me) only to get through to the shops and duty-free **past** security where it’s possible to buy GLASS bottles of iced tea and alcohol, YES, duty-free alcohol, (glass is sharp if you break off the bottoms and booze can be set on fire), decorative cast iron garden stakes and kitchen implements (except for knives) at the kitchen store, metal cutlery at the restaurants there… SIGH. But I can’t take more than 3 oz of liquid with me, have to take my netbook out of my bag, take of the slippers, roll up the belt, ETC.

    What’s wrong with this picture?

    1. I go through security for what is basically a shuttle service to Palm Springs

      So you’re the slow driver in the big car that I’m always stuck behind on 111.

      1. Yup. I get there, fire up the ’76 Cadillac and head down 111 to Red Tomato for the early bird special – straddling both lanes while driving 35 miles an hour. Oh, and the car has a bumper sticker that says, ‘I’m spending my kids’ inheritance.

  17. For a couple of years in the early aughts I was traveling to Australia often, and every time I went through customs I was pulled aside for a special screening: Something in my passport was tripping the computer’s “person of interest” flag, so the Aussies would escort me to a doctor’s-office-style waiting room, I’d sit there for about five minutes, then someone would come out of the back office, look me up and down, say “nope, not him,” and send me on my way.

    After the fifth or sixth time I casually mentioned to one of the customs agents that I was getting the “nope, not him” screening every time I entered Australia… and it never happened again.

    I shudder to think what’d happen if the TSA mistook me for a person of interest.

  18. As a Brisbane native it heartens me to hear this. Brisbane is an unremarkable place, but I do like to think that a couple of things we have in our favour are courtesy to visitors and a dislike of bullshit.

    The changes are a surprise: we tend to follow the US’s lead without question on so many things, so to make these changes (while giving the US the finger with the “real risks” comment) is incredible. Now I can get back to using my flying time to catch up on my knitting again.

  19. had a TERRIBLE experience with Canadian customs. We had been completely rerouted to go from Rome to Paris to Montreal to Philly, and the Montreal customs officials were the worst I’ve ever had

    That’s not Canadian customs, silly – that’s Quebec. Not part of the same country at all, apparently.

  20. Ever suddenly been reminded that you’ve let an absurdity become “normal” to you? As an American, I had that experience when checking in for an Australian domestic flight. Nobody asked me for ID. Nobody demanded that I take off my shoes. Nobody told me to throw away my water bottle.

    At first I was shocked. Then I was saddened and depressed that I was shocked.

  21. I feel it begs the question of safety – if these things will be safe next July, why are they not safe now? It was the same when they brought the restrictions in – these things were going to be not allowed in some months, but they were OK to take until then. Either they are safe all the time, or they are safe none of the time.

  22. I fly domestic within Australia often and internationally probably 4 times a year. The outbound immigration folks are merely “flat” compared to all other airport staffers and I think that’s all I can come up with.

    Domestic folks are fantastic – especially the “sniffer wipe” folks. I can’t speak highly enough of them. “Good afternoon sir”, “Home to visit family sir?”, “Hope this isn’t too troublesome sir”. It changes the entire experience. Even the “bag squeezers” outbound to US are polite and friendly

    Had a wonderful time in quarantine once. I brought some stuff in I had to declare and they asked for my passport. I was an old photo and I’d gone from short hair and tie to a ponytail and stuff. The woman looked at the photo and back and me and asked while laughing “What happened!?” I burst out in lulz too

    Oh and the beagles *are* cute. They come round and everybody turns and looks and it’s always smiles and “awwws”. One time a beagle kept going to the same guy over and over even after a bag check. All that happened was jokes about the guy smuggling bacon.

    Lovely stuff

  23. As a citizen, I’ve never had anything to do with Australian immigration/customs, but I can say our quarantine service are very reasonable folks. After landing in Queensland, we declared boots layered in the mud of south-east Asian national parks. AQIS confiscated them… but only for long enough to sterilise and clean them for us. :)

    (As #2 mentioned, now that we again have the right to mile-high knitting, we just need some ‘real risks’ common sense applied to Sen Conroy’s internet filter ideas.)

  24. So I missed the part where they are going to allow passengers to be fully armed with loaded handguns. Otherwise I’m not sure how this counts as a return to sanity.

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