Seafarers becoming new target of international terrorists

Governments are increasingly aware of the threat of maritime terrorism, but so far the search for solutions has focused on port security. The fact that piracy is at its highest level in a decade shows that security measures in the most vulnerable seas are not working. If we cannot stop conventional pirates, we have little hope of stopping the terrorists.

Flags of convenience - ships flying the flag of a country other than the country of ownership - allow hijacked vessels to operate under a cloak of invisibility using decoy corporations and forged or stolen paperwork. British intelligence estimates that al-Qaeda has 15 of these "phantom" ships already. Regional co-operation and intelligence sharing are crucial countermeasures.

Most attacks take place in waters where the piracy laws of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea are powerless. Policies that apply a "nation-based" approach are founded on a false premise because the nature of both merchant shipping and terrorism is international.

Australia is right to spend money on protecting its territorial assets (the north-west shelf and Sydney Harbour, for example), but it must ensure that South-East Asia co-operates before an unholy alliance of pirates, organised crime gangs and terrorists becomes entrenched.

Detailed contingency plans for responding to an attack in the Straits of Malacca, Lombok or Sunda - or Sydney - need to be kept up to date.

Our sea-lanes are a vital national asset and protecting them has economic merit in its own right. With the emergence of seafaring terrorists, it is now a matter of national security as well.