3 Holer,
I think you have hit the nail fairly on the head. Anything to cut costs these days. Who cares how the travelling public and their friends and airport staff are treated. Just cut costs.
Reminds me of HKG at Kai Tak when the airport started to get crowded. They removed all seating from the airport to disencourage friends from seeing passengers off.
As to the poster re BNE security. I think you will find that security in BNE has always been referred to asQUAINT