Senator smuggles pipe bomb into Parliament House

An Australian Senator chose an unusual way to demonstrate lax security in the parliament house by sneaking in a fake pipe bomb. Bill Hefferman who is the ruling Liberal Parties representative and a wheat farmer produced the device from a plastic shopping bag and said he had “ brought this through security: a pipe bomb”. In his hand he held what appeared to be sticks of dynamite taped together, dynamite he uses to blast tree stumps on a farm.
Hefferman is a member of the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee  who were questioning security issues and routine police procedures with Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus.

Hefferman was demonstrating the difference in security from the week before. Previously all Parliamentary workers had to have belongings x-rayed and walk through a metal detector but budget cuts has seen a relaxing in security with only people considered high risk such as journalists, diplomats and some contractors, being screened.

Tony Negus was forced to agree with Hefferman that the current security would not prevent somebody bringing explosive ingredients into the building. “Under the current arrangements, that is a risk, yes”. He also acknowledges that Hefferman had warned he would try something like this. “I was satisfied that it was inert,” Negus said. Ian MacDonald said to Hefferman “I just hope you are not doing anything illegal to which we are accessories”.