Former Federal Airports Corporation head of security Michael Carmody said security cards issued to airport staff were easily forged or swapped, and Australia remained one of the few countries that still allowed non passengers into screened departure areas for domestic flights.

‘‘That’s just nuts. It means there’s no way of guaranteeing the person who bought the ticket is the one who gets on the flight,’’ he said.

Mr Carmody’s comments follow revelations on the ABC’s Four Corners last night that organised crime syndicates are circumventing airport and waterfront security checks to import millions of dollars of drugs and chemicals to supply illegal drug labs.

There was an urgent need for Australia’s airports to switch to more sophisticated biometric surveillance equipment – like electronic thumbprint and iris-scanning techniques used by the United States.

‘‘There is a fundamental disconnect in a card-based system. What it cannot prevent is the passage of cards or the duplication of cards, and there have been numerous occasions when that has occurred.’’

Earlier this year, the Australian Federal Police told a parliamentary inquiry into aviation and port security that Australia’s major airports still lacked adequate TV monitoring.

The AFP said the Federal Government should fund ‘‘a full upgrade’’ of closed circuit television cameras at 11 major airports ‘‘as a matter of urgency’’ following a drug-related murder at Sydney airport last year.

In its submission to a joint committee investigating whether current aviation and maritime security measures were adequate to combat organised crime, AFP president Jon Hunt-Sharman said the agency had advocated ‘‘significant reforms’’ to Australia’s airport security for more than a decade.

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