QLD Voice Recording a Conversation with Staff at Brisbane Airport

[kabuto]

I was recently at an airport (Brisbane Airport) accompanying my father who's about to depart the country for business reasons. As the airport recently went through some renovations, the self-service system was chaotic. My father bought an e-ticket online where it specifically stated that he can bring two large luggage that weigh 23kg each. However the airline (which I will keep anonymous) service desk stated we can only bring 30kg in total, with extra charges applied to the extra weight for our luggage. He directed us to the sales desk to sort out this problem.

However, when we went to the sales desk, the staff said he wasn't in charge and ask us to line-up again at the airline service desk. When my father tried to reason with him, asking for guidance and explanation, the staff's attitude was patronising (by repeating his statement over and over again in hopes of shutting my father up) and extremely rude and ignored any of my father's wishes (despite him acting reasonably calm and collected).

Since this was obviously going nowhere, I openly started voice recording the conversation (which I was also a part of) using my smart phone. My intention was to record his words, so that when we go to the service desk again, we don't need to come back to the sales desk again. However, the staff immediately removed my phone without my consent, asked me to remove the file (in which I did because I don't want any legal trouble).

When we decided to put this behind us and line-up again in hopes of sorting the luggage out, the staff came to us. Although he did offer to take the luggage free-of-charge, he took my details (from my drivers licence which I consent to because, once again, I don't want any trouble), and said he can and might take it to the Australian Federal Police (because I recorded him without his consent). Although he did say that he will not press charges, I am still concerned that he might change his mind.

I looked up some Queensland Privacy Laws, in particular INVASION OF PRIVACY ACT 1971 - SECT 43, and it said that as long as I am a party of the conversation, it is my right to legally record it. So, did I actually unlawfully commit a crime? Did this staff breach any laws?

I am not asking this to press charges against this particular staff, I am wondering this to protect myself as a consumer of this particular airline.

Thank you.

 

[kabuto]

I should also note that the deleted recording was an audio recording.
Other acts that was displeasing to me regarding this incident was that, this staff shared our fall out with another staff, who also commented that I was committing a crime. The supervisor he called upon to "give me a lesson" also said that I was committing a crime.

For the record, I was not aware that I was committing a crime. I told the supervisor that I wasn't aware, and he said that "Australian citizens are asked to abide driving laws without the knowledge of the particular statute laws" and said that if they wanted to they can call upon the Federal Police for acting against them. It should be noted though that this supervisor was a lot nicer and did not cause a scene, which I was thankful of.

But if the staff who started all this didn't use such a rude attitude at the very start, this wouldn't have happened. I understand that he might be having a bad day because the airport is quite busy.
In hindsight, I found their statements equivalent to threats to prevent me from filing a complaint to their head office, which I will not do, unless they press charges against me.

Another question, if the Federal Police were to contact me, what should I say over the phone?