Over the last decade we have, around the world, grown used to the ever present ‘terror threat levels’ and ‘states of alert’ that have gone along with taking flights being ever more fraught with difficulty. Some have mocked these as being vague and pointless, even seeing them as promoting fear. In the UK if one day the terror threat level is ‘severe’ as opposed to ‘substantial’, what do you do differently? Where does it all ends nobody knows, though nobody has gone quite as far as Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Rudd has announced that he believes Australia to be under a “permanent and increased” threat of a terrorist attack. As well as expecting the Australian population to live in a state of, presumably never ending, terror, extra security measures will be introduced on all flights to Australia. These measures will not apply to everyone taking flights to Australia just to those taking flights to Australia who are from a selection of countries.

There are 10 countries from which every visitor to Australia will be treated as being a potential terrorist subject. After taking their flights to Australia these visitors will be required to undergo fingerprinting and have a face scan taken. Quite what countries will be on this list is at present still the subject of secrecy. It is however believed that both Yemen and Somalia will probably be on the list, as these are both countries that Australia has singled out as having terrorist threats associated with them.
Unlike many other countries, Australia has not seen a terrorist attack on its soil. While this is the case since 2001 over 100 Australians have been killed by terrorists whilst abroad. In addition to this within Australia there have been a number of alleged attempted terrorist attacks that have been foiled.