Category: Archive

Photo: Part of the 5 kilometre, 2.8-metre `security’ fence in Darling Harbour in Sydney, erected for APEC. Photo: AP

Related news stories:

APEC Ghost town – audio slideshow 

Let us dissent – audio slideshow 

Shady character loses his lunch watching activists

Foreign invasion, yet lots of room at the inns

APEC: you’re not invited to the party

Greens keen to cage Bush, not Sydney

APEC leaders’ outfits – a pictorial history

Sydney’s Water Cannon 

NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, announced that the State Government has bought a $600,000 water cannon for the riot squad in time for APEC. The Premier admitted the cannon could cause "serious injury". The black truck with a fire hose on top  eventually managed to knock over 120-kilogram pylons when demonstrated for the television cameras.

One group who will not be knocked off their feet by the device during protests will be unionists. The NSW Police Association has done a deal with the Government, its acting secretary, Greg Black, confirmed yesterday, that the cannon would not be turned on striking protesters on picket lines.

The outgoing Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, said in 2005 after the Macquarie Fields riots that if NSW police looked at water cannons, it would show authorities had "lost the plot’.

The NSW Greens MP John Kaye said yesterday that demonstrating the device could act as a needless provocation to APEC protesters, which could increase the risk of violence during the summit.

Edmund Tadros, August 27, 2007

Sydney is about to host Australia’s most exclusive party.

You’re paying for it but as the organisers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit and the state government made clear at the weekend, you are definitely not invited.

In addition, the most important invitee has thrown the agenda for the $177 million (and counting) party into disarray and his wife has been forced to send her regrets.

This morning US first lady Laura Bush announced she would not attend next week, citing a a pinched nerve.

The news will come as a blow to prime mininster John Howard’s wife Janette, who will host a Spouse’s Program during the summit that will involve seeing native animals and a visit to Bondi.

A media release from the APEC Taskforce made much of how this would "showcase Sydney’s unique heritage" but made little mention of the disruption it would cause to Bondi on Sunday, September 9.

Clearways will be implemented along Bondi on the Sunday, a security operation around the Icebergs Dining Room and Bar will cut off members from their club until 4pm and the tens of thousands expected at the annual Festival of Winds kite carnival on Bondi Beach are likely to encounter delays.

Bush to leave early

This comes after Mrs Bush’s husband confirmed he is arriving and leaving the APEC summit early so he can be present when a progress report on the war in Iraq is presented in Washington and for the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on America.

The change in plans for the most important world leader at the summit has meant the early implementation of widespread clearways and security measures that, in the words of Deputy Premier John Watkins, meant organisers had to go back to the drawing board after two years’ worth of planning.

The early arrival means that CBD workers will be affected by APEC-related disruptions during three working days – from Tuesday, September 4, until Thursday, September 6 – and not just the APEC long weekend.

The disruptions include a 5 kilometre, 2.8-metre fence that will lock up sections of the CBD, declared APEC security areas throughout the city, road closures and special event clearway signs in suburbs up to 11 kilometres from the city centre. This is not to mention the disruption that a large scale protest planned for Saturday, September 8, is likely to cause.

Source: SMH  

Sunanda Creagh, Urban Affairs Reporter, August 27, 2007

A GIANT banner saying "Cage Bush. Not Sydney" could be slung from the top of Town Hall, under a proposal to be voted on by the City of Sydney tonight.

The Deputy Lord Mayor, Chris Harris, from the Greens, has called on councillors to support his motion calling for such a banner, to take a stand against crackdowns on protest at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum next month.

"As a city councillor, I am appalled that we are allowing our government to gate off our city from the people who live, work and pay rates here," he said.

"That we would spend $600,000 on a water cannon to be used against our citizens should they exercise their democratic right to demonstrate.

"That we have converted 31 State Transit buses into mobile holding cells, and that during the APEC summit it will cost the city of Sydney hundreds of millions of dollars in lost economic activity that we will never recover.

"While I agree that we should do all we can to protect visiting leaders, it should never be at the expense of the community’s democratic rights or the economic wellbeing of our businesses and workers."

Erecting a cage around the US President, George Bush, would ensure his safety without disrupting Sydney, he said.

Cr Harris is asking council to "take a stand for its citizens by demonstrating its disapproval of the lockdown of Sydney and the loss of the democratic rights of its citizens by erecting a banner on the Town Hall of Sydney that says ‘Cage Bush. Not Sydney"’.

The Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, would not say if she would support the motion.

"Sydney, as a global city, should be able to take meetings such as these in its stride," a spokesman for Cr Moore said yesterday. "The City of Sydney is investigating ways to alleviate the impact on residents, and that’s what we’ll be concentrating on."

Residents who find their parking spots have been turned into clearways during the summit may be able to park free in the Domain car park, the spokesman said. "We are certainly investigating it."

Source: SMH  

This piece of land, a wildlife corridor to Cudgera Reserve, is frequented by endangered flora and fauna, subject to flooding and tidal inundation and is now proposed for a housing estate and – yet another resort! 

Wetlands, mangroves, fish nurseries and habitats in abundance – all under metres of landfill – so that a developer who bought the land for a song with full knowledge that it was problematic- can have his shot at multimillion dollar ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION! 

The Hobbits will continue to push so as to save HP’s village character and its environment until the fat lady sings and she hasn’t sung yet! 

Too many times we have experienced temporary and partial Council/Government action to address developer destruction, only then to see authorities drop the ball – effectively rubber stamping and condoning illegal and unacceptable destructive practices which leave HP and its environment in a continual state of over-development threat. This has to stop once and for all! 

The Hobbits will keep a very close eye on what real action is taken to address their concerns and keep you posted. We will call for tabled discussions with the experts employed by Council so we have input into determining the future of our beloved home, consistent with policy and law.  We will lobby so that unfettered and unchecked discretions no longer have a comfortable seat in the Tweed Shire!

The president’s intervention came just weeks after leaks from a White House meeting suggested that Vice-President Dick Cheney, who is understood to favour the use of force, has regained the upper hand over the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who both advocate diplomacy and sanctions to isolate Iran. Mr Cheney reacted with fury when the State Department suggested that negotiations might continue past January 2009, when Mr Bush leaves the White House.

So the question is: did Mr Bush last week set America inexorably on a path to the next war?

Washington officials, with close links to the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council, say that the speech was designed as a threat not just to Iran, but to America’s Western allies, along with Russia and China, who have been slow to support – or who have opposed – UN sanctions against Iran. James Phillips, a Middle East expert at the Heritage Foundation, who helped devise the war-game scenario, said: "It is simultaneously a shot across Iran’s bows and an appeal for the international community to do more to stop or slow Iran’s nuclear programme."

A former White House aide added: "If this creates in the Iranians’ mind a state of fear such that they back off, that helps your diplomacy. Bush is a political poker player. To play poker, you have to know when to bluff."

Mr Bush had another reason for speaking out, too. With General David Petraeus due before Congress on September 11 to report on progress on his "surge" in Iraq, Mr Bush wanted to make the case that a withdrawal from Iraq would boost Iranian influence there – in the hope that this would increase domestic support for his policies.

In Teheran, Mr Ahmadinejad was also quick to make the Iraq connection, but as an impediment, not impetus, to American adventurism. "We have an expression in Farsi which says, ‘Bring up the one that you have given birth to first, then go for another one’," he said. "Let them do what they started in Afghanistan and Iraq then think of other countries." He dismissed threats of military action as "more of a propaganda measure than factual".

Proposed Southern Seawater Desalination plant comparable to Kwinana: "The Kwinana Desalination plant is just one of a number of state-wide projects undertaken to increase scheme water," the Minister explained. "The nature of water sources often requires them to be developed locally. The desalination plant provides water into the Integrated Water Supply System (IWSS). The IWSS supplies water to metropolitan Perth, and to parts of the Goldfields, Agricultural and South-West regions. It is not appropriate to compare the quantity of the proposed desalination plant to the total state-wide water requirements as desalination is a high quality potable water source. The proposed desalination plant is more appropriately compared to other drinking water quality sources rather than (for instance) water used for mining or agriculture. In that regard, it is anticipated that the proposed Southern Seawater Desalination plant will be the same size as the recently commissioned Kwinana Desalination plant – a source that has increased the capacity of the IWSS by 17 per cent."

No decision on "second phase": "As noted above," the Minister said, "comparison to total state-wide sources (of which a significant proportion is non-potable water) is inappropriate. In addition, it is too early to speculate on a "second phase" of the proposed desalination plant. No decision has been made as to when a second phase will be undertaken, nor whether it will in fact be the next major source project when the Southern Seawater Desalination plant is completed. It is inappropriate to compare a high quality drinking water source used in the IWSS to losses which (for instance) may have been generated through seepage in irrigation channels."

Water losses in "good to fair" international range: "Losses in Perth in 2005/06 were 23 GL," said Kobelke. "Such losses are inherent in all utility distribution networks, with the Corporation ranking at the top of the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) good to fair range according to the internationally utilised Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI). The Kwinana Desalination plant cost $387 million. The proposed Southern Seawater Desalination plant is estimated to cost $955 million. No decision has yet been made on the size nor timing of any further expansions to the proposed Southern Seawater Desalination plant. Again, a comparison of high quality potable water to total state-wide usage (of which a significant proportion is non-potable water) is inappropriate."

IWSS uses variety of sources: "The IWSS is sourced from a combination of groundwater, surface water and desalination sources in conjunction with demand management initiatives. This security through diversity approach will ensure that whilst desalination is an important part of the IWSS supply, it will never be the only supply option. In 2006, an Independent Review on the Options for Bringing Water to Perth from the Kimberley was undertaken and the review outlined four options in bringing water from the Kimberley region. Based on 200 GL/year scenario, these options are:

Given the high capital costs and unit costs for each option, the Government has been considering cheaper alternatives in resolving the water crisis in WA."

Reference: Mr Max W. Trenorden, Member for Avon, Nats, Mr John C. Kobelke, Minister for Water Resources, Member for Balcatta, ALP, Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, Hansard, 14 August 2007. A copy of these proceedings can be accessed at

http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au

Erisk Net, 23/8/2007