Annals of transport safety cluelessness

Flying back from Tokyo this week, I picked up, inside the customs area having checked in, some makeup and so forth as a present. My final destination was Sydney, though for whatever reason, my flight stopped in at Cairns for an hour or so.
So, of course the said present was in my carry on luggage (as my bags were already checked).

When we got off at Cairns (to get back on the same plane) we had to go through a security checkpoint before going into the transit lounge.

Of course, at this point, one can't take liquids etc etc, other than 100mls, in a clear bag, yadda yadda. So, what happens with my several hundreds of dollars of cosmetics etc? Security wants to confiscate them. In the original sealed bag that were put in by the shop assistant in Tokyo airport (nicely torn open by the security staff), in a plastic sealed box. Sanity prevailed (not before I'd have been willing to make a lot of fuss, both on principle, and because of the cost of these items). But what kind of insane system do we have going here?

I guess one day we'll all be flying naked.

As I said to security while they tried to explain that I'd have to give up the cosmetics - "that's just ridiculous".