APEC 2007

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

Related news stories:

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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 

Protesters fired on by 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.

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