Aussie MP Exposes Weakness of Parliament Security by Smuggling in Fake Pipe Bomb
Liberal MP Bill Heffernan successfully showed on Monday the security flaw in Australia's Parliament building when he was able to successfully smuggle a fake pipe bomb and dynamite sticks undetected.
He showed the police, who were being asked in a parliamentary hearing over new screening measures, the empty pipe and imitation dynamite to prove his point.
The MP then described Parliament's security as a joke because officials and employees could enter the building carrying illegal items since they are not subject to a metal detector security check and X-ray screening. The new measures exempts MPs, but not media, contractors and the public.
He warned that Parliament could be at risk of a home-made bomb because of the lax security. Heffernan is an expert at makeshift explosives because as a child he used to blow up trees on their family yard, using some nitropril, a quart of distillate, a plug of jelly and a detonator.
Australian Federal Police head Tony Negus admitted the risks posed by current arrangements which were put in place to cut costs.
It is not Heffernan's first attempt to breach Parliament's security to test the system which he described as stupid, dodgy and risky." He attempted to smuggle a knife in 2009 and was caught.
Heffernan appears to love taking risks such as using his parliamentary privilege to a High Court judge of paedophilia, but it turned out to be false.
The trial new security measures will be subject to review only by early 2015.