Confused identity

Australia can be a confusing place. A few weekends ago I made the great migration from the bright lights and big city of Sydney to the outback of Western Australia. I write to you from Perth, (second only to Honolulu as the most isolated city in the world) and former stomping grounds of Chris G-Man Gorini, which I foresee as my home base for approximately the next three months. I say it’s confusing because on my Qantas Airlines flight 575 from Sydney to Perth, NO ONE asked to see my ID. Not a single soul. When my co-worker and I arrived we checked ourselves in at the automated machine by entering our reservation code. Out popped our boarding passes and we proceeded to the desk to check-in our luggage. Normally that’s where they hit you up for identification…..

….except when traveling domestically in Australia.

It was most certainly a lack of oversight instead of policy that they didn’t ask for ID. Between our personal stuff and work related gear (printer, magazines, etc) we clearly got to the counter with a lot of excess baggage and frenetically asked the agent lots of questions hoping to find a loophole to not get charged the insane excess baggage prices. So amidst the flurry of questions he probably forget to ask for our ID. But at security, it was certainly standard procedure to not check IDs or boarding passes. There was a line of 8 people taking off their shoes, emptying their pockets, and no one was asked for identification.

Perhaps I am so programmed to post-9/11 air travel that anything short of 3 ID checks and full pat downs seems irresponsible. Last December when I flew from Paris to Philadelphia they checked for ID during the boarding process itself; after they ripped my boarding pass but before stepping on to the plane there was a guard who asked for my ID, opened my hand carry to inspect it, and patted me down. I’m not saying that should happen all the time. Just that we have come to expect full fledged ID checks when traveling by air and the absence of seems an oddity. Decoupling ID checks from the populist and in Australia’s case, unlikely, terrorist argument, to me it just seems sloppy to not verify someone’s identification when boarding a plane.

What a coincidence, you do not need to present an ID when entering a government building in Australia either. I have been in several government office buildings, both federal and state, for work over the past few weeks. In Canberra we had a meeting with the Secretary for Resources and Energy (the Secretary here is not the equivalent of a cabinet Secretary in the US like the Secretary of State, Secretary of Transportation etc….that equivalent in Australia would be called a Minister) and last we met with the Premier of Western Australia (equivalent of a governor). ID check? Nope. Just scribble your name on a sign-in sheet and have seat on the couch please, the Premier will see you in just a few moments.

So you don’t need an ID to board a plane or enter a government building in Australia. But go figure, you do need to present 2 forms of ID AND proof of an Australian bank account to buy a portable modem and sign up for a month-to-month plan at Vodafone. Then what about going out to bars and clubs? Well, that depends. I’ve been to some places where they let me in with my State of New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles issued drivers license. I’ve been elsewhere where they demand a passport in order to let me in because “drivers licenses can be faked” (like I’m gonna carry my passport around to the bars) and another club where they ask for a passport AND scan your fingerprints upon entrance. All in all it’s a confusing mix of inconsistencies but not checking for IDs for air travel will make me scratch my head for a long time.