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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  

"Now are we going to continue to have just a woodchip industry and small amounts of value adding through saw logs and finishing timber products or are we going to have substantial value adding?

"I’ve always felt and always thought that substantial value adding was part of the equation."

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull rang the ABC while Mr Garrett was on air to say he was "aghast" at his counterpart’s hypocrisy.

He said Mr Garrett had been silent when Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon terminated an initial environmental inquiry into the pulp mill.

"Not one word of criticism from Peter Garrett or (Opposition Leader) Kevin Rudd," Mr Turnbull said.
"They were completely complicit in Lennon’s conduct. Not one word of criticism. They never picked up the phone and said `hang on Paul, you’ve got to let this thing go through to its conclusion’."

He accused Mr Garrett of being "like a mute, a silent figure lurking in the shadows" on the pulp mill issue until the last few days.

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!