Organised criminals have infiltrated Australia's wharves and airports, the Australian Crime Commission says.
A confidential inquiry by the commission over the past three years has detected outlaw motorcycle gangs and other crime groups working at air and sea ports.
In one instance, an executive of an Asian airline used his official security pass to smuggle drug money through Melbourne Airport and onto a plane, it said.
The commission's three-year "Crime in the transport sector" inquiry has produced 349 reports and intelligence briefs on waterfront criminality and 86 reports into the airport sector, Fairfax newspapers say.
A spokesman for Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor told Fairfax that the minister will be briefed by the commission this week.
The federal budget contained $53.1 million to improve airport security, the spokesman said.
Transport Workers Union federal secretary Tony Sheldon said the high turnover of staff among private operators meant ASIO checks were not being done, putting air passengers at risk.
"The public should be concerned and every policy maker should be concerned," he said.
"The people that own our airports (have) a responsibility to stop outsourcing the work, to stop having high turnover of staff and stop employing bikies that are part of notorious gangs."
"This latest report about security at our airports paints a rather grim picture of what is happening at our airports right around the country," Mr Sheldon told reporters at Sydney airport.
"Reports that a senior outlaw biker is working for an outsourced security firm in Melbourne is just one of the major problems we are facing here."
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