Fed: UK bomb experts briefing Aust on terror threat = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2006
Fed: UK bomb experts briefing Aust on terror threat = 2

Mr Keelty said the government had to work with the aviation industry to find a solution,
rather than simply stop planes flying.

"You can't shut the industry down. If you shut the industry down, the terrorists have
won," Mr Keelty said.

"It's a matter of working with industry ... to work out a solution to these things,
to reassure the travelling public that they can go and travel and they can travel safely."

Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said security arrangements at Australian airports would
not be changed without specific intelligence that an attack was planned.

"What we believe is that a terrorist attack is feasible but we have no specific information
that people are planning such an operation in Australia," Mr Ruddock said.

"There is a heightened degree of awareness of the importance of this level of scrutiny,
but in terms of the advice that we have at this time, no further changes have been made
domestically or internationally and ... in relation to inbound travel into the United
Kingdom."

He said any Australians in London who were due to fly home or to US would have to bear
in mind the risks, as well as the massive inconvenience from new travel arrangements,
including restrictions on cabin luggage, when deciding whether to take their flights.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has urged people to postpone non-urgent travel.

"They have to make an assessment as to how urgent it is that they travel, they have
to have regard to the considerable inconvenience that is likely to be occasioned to them
because of the enhanced scrutiny that is occurring, there is likely to be considerable
delay, and if those factors are relevant, they have to take them into account," Mr Ruddock
said.

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KEYWORD: TERROR UK KEELTY 2 CANBERRA

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