Border security boss confirms they asked the government for more power to check airport passengers for ID – but insists they 'won't be racially profiling anyone'

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The Australian Federal Police asked for the right to demand the ID of any airport passenger but insisted they wouldn't be racially profiling anyone.

AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin said existing laws made it too hard for officers to meet the threshold for 'reasonable suspicion' to ask for identification and confirmed he asked the Turnbull Government to change this.

'We believe this is a gap in our security at airports and as such we've been speaking to government about what measures might be reasonably brought in to address that gap,' he told a Senate hearing in Canberra today.

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Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin said existing laws made it too hard for officers to meet the threshold for 'reasonable suspicion' to ask for identification

Civil libertarians and the Greens are outraged at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's new security measures, unveiled earlier this month, which will give Border Force and the AFP more power to randomly ask passengers for ID.

Mr Colvin said this power he requested from the federal government was a 'risk-based measure'. 

'It's a balanced, measured law that will not curtail freedom of movement, but provide police with a measure that we can deal with some of those vulnerabilities,' he said.   

New body scanners are also being installed at airports across Australia, including the smaller regional ones.

Under questioning from crossbench senator Derryn Hinch, Mr Colvin insisted the AFP would not be allowed to engage in American-style racial profiling.

'There is a world of difference between Australia law enforcement and what we see in the U.S.,' the AFP Commissioner said.

'I would be very surprised and disappointed to see that type of behaviour in Australia. 

Under questioning from crossbench senator Derryn Hinch, Mr Colvin insisted the AFP would not be allowed to engage in American-style racial profiling

'All our officers are trained to act on behaviour, not act on race, religion, profile in any way.'

Tasmanian Greens senator Nick McKim told the hearing the new powers to check ID was 'unprecedented' and 'a step too far down the road to authoritarianism'.

Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm, a libertarian opposed to unnecessary government intervention into everyday life, said it was 'bizarre' a passenger could board a flight without having to show their identification unlike a pilot.

New body scanners are also being installed at airports across Australia, including the smaller regional ones as part of an upgrade to border security