Why is APEC not being held in Canberra? APEC an exercise in arrogance

Given the claims of the racing industry for compensation appear not unreasonable and will likely be paid at least in part with the NSW government’s $4m emergency fund for the equine flu crisis, which has been indicated will be refilled as necessary, will those with lost income due to APEC be compensated? Starting Monday, the CBD has become like a ghost town (presumably too much fighting on the dance floor). Anecdotally those who tried to open on the Monday to test the waters for business that there is only police in the area. Consensus is that they will all have to close for the remainder of the period. Spare a thought for the fruit vendors and caféteers who will lose two weeks revenue and running costs. One CBD café owner said he makes around $5000 a day, which means he will be around $50,000 out of pocket for the summit. It seems a big price to pay for Howard’s ego and the reimbursement should come from federal coffers rather than the state.

The public have long been mildly resentful of Howard’s decision to live in Kirribilli House rather than the Lodge. It is not that most people blame him as I would rather live in Sydney than Canberra personally, if for no other reason than the views and climate. What is annoying is the cost at which he does so, and that he is the only prime minister to have felt the need to. Abusing it for Liberal fund raisers has not helped. Clearing Sydney’s CBD for what amounts to a private party for the over powered and his own personal aggrandizement kind of feels a little excessive, especially when, like Howard’s living arrangements, it should be in Canberra.

When Bob Hawke held the first APEC meeting in 1989, it was in Canberra and went smoothly. It may be said that it only hosted 12 leaders but the real reason is that Canberra is a city which was literally designed to accommodate such events. A single street could have been used in the political district of a city which is a series of satellite towns. The total disruption would have been virtually none as the satellites get on with their business in a state of near obliviousness to the event. The total cost would have been significantly less, especially for NSW. The security would have been far superior. I understand that Bush’s security is standard fare for him, except that he usually uses a helicopter in Washington rather than motorcade. Still, you wonder if the fence, exclusion zones, water cannon and lines of police would really have been needed had the venue not been so inappropriate. Who would protest in Canberra? A few might travel there, but most of us have to work or at least have something better to do with our time than travel to Canberra.

There has been the curious excess of Mr Bush’s motorcade which traveling little more than 100 meters from the InterContinental Hotel to Howard’s office has meant the stretch of cars involved in the operation have actually spanned a greater distance than that traveled. The early arrival of the US President has proven to be as much as anything a demonstration of chummery between Howard and Bush. For a man chasing another term in government, hosting your buddy who is seen as the worst president in American history, who is clearly a cocaine and alcohol damaged imbecile and widely regarded as a war criminal, it does not seem like a particularly intelligent move. I think Prime Ministerial excess and arrogance will be the overriding message that voters will take away from APEC.