A DETACHMENT of F/A-18 fighter jets will be deployed along with 1500 Australian Defence Force personnel to bolster security at the APEC leaders’ meeting in Sydney next month.
The troops would provide general support to the security operation but would also man checkpoints, conduct vehicle and venue searches and be on standby to respond to any calls for assistance, Defence Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said yesterday.
Yeah, F-18’s buzzing overhead probably tops it off for Sydney residents, who’ll also have to put up with noise and military traffic, the road to the airport being monopolized by motorcades, cancelled elective surgery, and massive concerete security barriers around substantial bits of the city, all so John Howard gets his photo-op with George, Hu, Bambang, and the gang in front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. As a Melburnian, this is one major event Sydney can have all to itself…
Gee thanks Melbourne. I’m really looking forward to encountering the new $600 000 purpose bought water canon. Or the Taser guns - no capsicum spray for us Sydneysiders. & what’s a few F-18s after years of 747s, A300s etc etc lumbering into Kingsford Smith? Maybe they’ll bomb that pesky Toaster thing at the Quay….
We are giving them APEC shirts impregnated with something really nasty and socially embarrassing, aren’t we?
“Maybe they’ll bomb that pesky Toaster thing at the Quay….”
I though everyone had grown to love Syndey’s newest icon…??
At least the water cannon will wash away the smell and stain from those awful urine filled balloons the unwashed will be hurling about. Weathergirl, where are you these days ?
And is this the sort of gathering where the nobs all get together for a photo-op wearing a shirt reflecting the local culture ?
I suggest they all get a Mambo T- shirt featuring that amazing creation of Reg Mombassa’s - Aussie Jesus.
Iemma has put up token opposition to APEC being held in Sydney, but in reality he loves it. He loves playing the tough guy on terrrism just as much as Howard.
A couple of years ago when Howard invited Bush to address the parliament, we canberrans were treated to the ear-shattering noise of american jets “protecting” the airspace above our city - and many of us found out how high we could spit. Highly recommended for you sydneysiders - after all there’s not much else you are allowed to do when the protector of the free world visits.
How about an 80’s-style Ken Done T-shirt. Not offensive enough for them to refuse to wear, but just as embarrassing
Noisy fighter jets flying through the CBD sounds like fun.
I’d be more annoyed by the cone of silence:
‘How about an 80’s-style Ken Done T-shirt’
Ughhhhh…….
Oh no .Have to chuck….!
No way, Robert. It’s got to be a Coogi.
IF Johnny and his mates reckon that numerous photo opportunities taken with the power-that-be will be a positive for their electoral chances I reckon they are sadly [?] mistaken.
I further reckon [I’m prepared to admit my reading of the response could be wrong] that the event will constitute a huge turn-off in the eyes of the public, and not just Sydneysiders.
I predict that despite the fawning of the media this event will boost the ALP.
What do you reckon?
And no doubt will block the mobile phones of Ratty and any Law Enforcement officers in the same vicinty, unless the NSW Police use thir you beaut Encrypted Digital Radio network exclusively.
Oh and also the various media hacks following Shrub as well will be affected.
Frankly who the hell would notice if their mobile is jammed in parts of the CBD? There’s black spots all over the city as it is.
Oh do like the idea of impregnated shirts - perhaps a little rubbing with yellowcake then? for that glow in the dark look. Work well with the Ken Done design…
Nothing says ‘Tourist!’ like Coogi.
I would of thought all the cancelled engagements by leaders would of made more certain headway.George W. is as popular as a fly crawling up a wall in a room full of drunken gamblers who have lost their cards,but not elastic rubber bands. I expect we will see the word rubber in some form as the overwhelming English word for theses auspicious occasion. I hope the leaders of all the countries decide not to be flies also and, ask themselves why they couldnt see parts of Aus.in a big bus with a semi-trailer in front and behind,and the right to see protestors without flinching as humans. Coffs Harbour for example was supposed to be one of the most livable cities in the world. It is safe,for leaders,security,and protestors if they all got on a bus. Why bore them to tears,after all George knows I am not a fan of his at all,but freedom is important,basic physical freedom to move. Howards paranoia combined with that of others is simply reducing their capacity to be real. If I was representing all the valid causes I agree with in protest against this lot, should they worry!? Not if they know that I can get really angry,as I suspect they can too. Why all this drama then! Put them on a bus see the Waterfall Way,I say. Stop the bullshit in its tracks. I am the only potential terrorist out here,accept the usual anti-American resentment that happens from time to time.Well if they know that,same other countries leaders,Howard and Sydney are in the pet shop bird cage!? I want a technology to stop following me around,Geo. is the probably the only one who could spin it in a different direction..and it could be interfering with him as some think he is suffering some form of brain-washing. Peace!
I don’t know, hannah. As silkworm suggests, Iemma (Premier-by-default) is pretty heavily involved in this spectacle. The potential pro-ALP flow-on might be halted right there, as much as this is a huge pain in the arse for Sydney-siders.
Ooh. Shiny aeroplanes might persuade me to stay in Sydney that weekend, after all.
I’ll sit on one of the northern beaches with a telephoto lens, and see how long it takes to get arrested.
Nothing says neo-liberal globalization like anti-democratic takeovers of public spaces & public lives.
Why why why are we holding this damn thing in Sydney when we have the ideal venue lying vacant and unused?
“I’ll sit on one of the northern beaches with a telephoto lens, and see how long it takes to get arrested.”
Please correct me if I’m wrong but people in Sydney believe it is already illegal to sit on a beach and take photos - you know , all those pederasts and their ilk are about taking shots of kids .
You should perhaps stick with your wristwatch camera rather than scaring everyone with your huge lens?
And we should not forget that, our government, is to provide 31 free, ‘freedom buses’, for the general population to exercise their democratic right to demonstrate.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/cages-on-wheels-apec-plan-to-keep-the-peace/2007/06/28/1182624083285.html
And full body massage service for the lucky ones.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21745991-1702,00.html
Like Grace, I recall the 24-hour-a-day noise of two F/A-18’s circling above Canberra while Bush was here. Sydney, you are welcome to that.
By the way, I assume with their new-found technical knowledge, the NSW Police have made it a crime to be caught in charge of a SIM card?
“A helicopter fitted with signal-jamming equipment will shadow the President’s motorcade.”
I vaguely remember the state government wanting to install equipment like this around prisons to prevent contra-band mobile phones from being used by inmates. They were prevented from doing so because it was illegal under some sort of Federal telecommunications law and the Federal government would not give them an exemption.
I wish they were holding it in Canberra. After all, it is the nation’s capital and if you shut it down for a few days hardly anyone would notice
I can’t think of a better way for Howard to look out of touch than to prance around the APEC summit with world leaders few people in Australia care about or like, talking about the importance of problems which, mostly, few Australians have even heard of. Then to top it off he’ll be spread all over the front pages looking like best buddies with GWB. Labor couldn’t have scripted it better.
Couldn’t we have a detatchment of Polish pilots cruising the city on bicycles going “dagadagadagadagadadagdaga” a la Battle of Britain? That would be real value for money in my book.
Security at an out-of-the-way, out-of-town location would have been cheap, effective, and would not have inconvenienced most of the population of a major city.
Howard certainly, and Iemma possibly, are prime dills, going for this opportunity to grandstand.
Although we do care about Ratty grinding Sydney to a halt and waving around his security goons, road blocks, jamming helicopters and other metaphorical phalli, all at taxpayers’ expense, we do not care in the way that he would like. This will be another nail in the coffin, with any luck.
Has anyone done a dollar-and-human-misery impact statement of the dollar cost (spending and lost business) and pain (cancelled surgery) of the summit versus the likely cost of a terrorist attack? Why don’t they just hold the summit in Nauru, inside the detention camp. That should be fairly secure!
Miss Keeler, polished pilots cruising on bicycles sounds rather buff. Excellent.
Ratty just can’t work it out, this is going to piss people , ya know, the voters off so much, his ego just won’t let the message through. Well, as they say, it’s all your own work. (and my bloody money, you bludger)
What exactly are FA-18’s supposed to achieve??
Shock and Awe.
“I predict that despite the fawning of the media this event will boost the ALP.”
Hannah, I hope you are correct. Sadly, security, laura norder are John Howards specialty areas. In the polls, they have sadly seen a small but encouraging ‘bounce’ with the Haneef story.
APEC may well provide ‘that’; multiplied by whatever real or unreal state of alert they decide to make it. Then the minimum election campaigning period.. people shit scared.. and Howard the hero.
Remember, they will try anything ‘on’.
Actually I think the air force has managed to more or less dodge this one. The CAP above Sydney is to be flown by police pilots in leased Cessna Citation jets, not by the air force. The F/A-18s won’t be involved at all unless there’s some emergency.
I guess stooging around Sydney all day and night is not high on the list of useful activities for highly trained pilots and expensive aircraft in combat squadrons.
At a guess, the Hornets are meant to do interception work of stray aircraft. I suppose they’d pretty effective at tracking traffic jams if they were up high enough, a lot better than the Austereo helicopters, anyway. What they might do at low altitude, blasting away in the Dambusters style like Grace and Russ have said they did, is anybody’s guess. Except, of course, for providing lovely noise for people like me (and the black-humoured David Axe).
The whole security pantomime is nuts. Walls? Blockades? Black mobile-phone blocking helicopters—where’s Steve Edwards these days? It’d be a lot cheaper and more secure simply to have these kinds of conferences in hellholes nobody wants to go to, and which are insignificant for the rest of the city. Somewhere in the Sutherland Shire would be perfect.
If I wasn’t going to a wedding on that weekend, I’d seriously think about dragging out my old demo t-shirts.
While security might be The White Rabbit’s strong suit, preventing a Sydneysider from driving anywhere they so please in their SUV/Volvo/BMW is about as electorally suicidial as an interest rate rise…oh yes…oh well bring on the Polish pilots.. dagadagadagadagdagadag - & love the buses. Does anyone know what fabric they’ve done the seats in? Must know, don’t want the outfit to clash with the upholstery.
Anyone willing to bet $20 to the Club Troppo fund that there WON’T be the usual, common-or-garden, agent provocateur violence as the Rodent’s last, desperate attempt to foist that old tart Laura Norder on the populace?
I hope that i’m wrong but fear that I’m not.
How ’bout aussie flag towels worn cape-style over bare torsos bearing legends like “Bash a Leb”?
The sentiment is also consistent with US foreign policy.
W would love it.
Without wanting to pre-empt your all-too-obvious pun, Katz, the bomber jacket is apparently going to be the APEC garment.
Hmm, Dubya wants to arrive 2 days early for APEC. I wonder so he can have “Private Talks” with Bonsai re Election strategies ?
The APEC Taskforce declined to confirm or deny a Nine Network report that US President George W Bush wanted to arrive two days early for the September 7-9 summit.
“Details of the leaders’ travel plans and itineraries are still being settled,” the APEC Taskforce said in a statement
And for all this costly brou-haha and attendant respect and awe from the plebs, will the Dyslexic Texacutioner have anything worthwhile to say?
I sometimes wonder if our bonsai apprentice shrub and others similarly elected beyond their intellects are secretly embarassed by the current “Leader of the Free World”.
Liam, that is a costume which should be nice & neutral & please everybody. I was shuddering at the thought of an ankle length oilskin with sheepman’s hat.
Really glad right about now I’m no longer living in Potts Point and working in the CBD. I’d be rioting in the streets at this point.
Olympics highlight: getting buzzed low (15 - 20 m) at night while walking up the Domain from the ‘loo by a Blackhawk with no nav lights visible. APEC will be a whole whole lot worse it seems.
I wonder if Rudd’ll go to any lengths to restore the idea of that town near Queanbeyan being a national capital.
If that town near Quenbeyan needs stories like this to aquire some political relevance, it really is a failure (for all that it should be World Heritage listed).
Tailgunner Liam, the zing comes in the last few words of your link. It seems that Hyacinth will ultimately make the final decision. Now, I do not want to create undue speculation, but there may be large spare pieces of laminated wallpaper, with silk, at a cost of more than $9000 a roll, still available.
Left over from the jet refurbishments. “Waste not want not”, is her motto, you know.
That’ll do. Almost amounts to the same thing as Polished pilots on bicycles.
Dagadagadagadagadadagdaga.
FA18 Hornets?!!
Um…der.. educate me which likely terrorist organisation has any credible air operation, anywhere.
A sus cold war Mig from the heathen northern jungles zips in to give a bit of hot lead justice.
Oh. I know, the random Cessna threat. From any airport within range with sus looking Saudis on board.
Unless JWH is trying to convince his party pals that the RAAF really does need an upgrade and these old kites are a charity case.
Oh. I know, the random Cessna threat. From any airport within range with sus looking Saudis on board.
The RAN shot down an unmanned Cessna in the 1950s IIRC.
The Cessna jumped its chucks and managed to take off on its own flying across western Sydney. The RAAF was called in but the RAN got their first - to add to the RAAF’s shame the pilots were from a British exchange program.
The FA-18s are still looking for an aircraftcarier to land on.
Havent these people heard of video conferencing? And why have it in a builtup area? Why not disappear out to Alice Springs or somewhere less annoying. I can see extra special Iraq reporting appearing on TV during this period.
For the inevitable photo op, I predict: budgie smugglers below, akrubras above. In addition, there will be F18s in the sky, cops in abundance and protestors herded into a piece of vacant land somewhere near Campbelltown.
Kina,
Are you nuts? Don’t you know it’s not safe up here in the NT.
Maybe the F-18s could come up and protect the kiddies?
I have nothing to add, I’d just like to join in the chorus of dagadagadagadagadadagdaga.
“Chicken to shitehawk in 20 minutes”.
Or was it ’sparrow to shitehawk’? I forget.
The F18s are there to shoot me down if stray away from my nominated flight plan when I’m within the 80km radius restricted-area centered on the CBD.
Never mind about what’ll then happen to the debris and/or expended ordinance.
*%&@WQ#*# politicians and the *%&#* games they play.
Michael: I am in the NT and there are already a squadron of F/A-18s stationed in Katherine. So far Howard hasnt found an election trick to use them except for APEC. Expect Howard to find an election stunt to mobilized the entire defence forces to stamp out crime in safe seats.
“It’d be a lot cheaper and more secure simply to have these kinds of conferences in hellholes nobody wants to go to, and which are insignificant for the rest of the
city” countryDoesn’t that description remind you of a certain capital city?
“Like Grace, I recall the 24-hour-a-day noise of two F/A-18’s circling above Canberra while Bush was here. Sydney, you are welcome to that.”
And lucky us, the rumour is Bush intends coming for a couple of extra days so we can look forward to an extra couple of days of chaos.
APEC should be held on Hamilton Island. Iconic, idyllic and away from undesirables.
If they want a more prominent location, they should use the Big Brother House on the Gold Coast.
No one believes me, but the official APEC oufit is going to be Speedoes. It’s getting warmer in Sydney but Queensland would be nicer.
Howard could use the F-18s to overthrow the Beattie government at the same time.
And now Bush is coming early. (Apparently he has to get home in time to bone up on the Iraq progress report, so he can’t even stay for the whole thing anyway.)
From reading this one could conclude people in Sydney are a bunch of sooks, whingers & sour pusses!
Complaining about the Olympic Games, moaning about this, that, everything, crikey, there is whining every time the SAS conduct an excise involving helicopters or rappelling onto a rooftop!
What do the other 4 million residents of that great city think of being chosen to host the summit?
Have a cold shower fellers, & put yourselves into a more positive frame of mind about having all that money & attention lavished onto you.
The rest of us aren’t important enough to have something worth protecting held anywhere near to us. *jealous* *envy*
Sydney’s approach to facilitating their Global City meme, and thus securing more foreign capital, seems to rely a great deal on the current political cycle, ie. most of the cabinet holding Sydney seats, Howard’s being a Sydney resident, etc.
What happens when the recession they had to have comes along? I heard the city was near it.
Hey steve, that’s our money they’re lavishing on us. And they’re lavishing it on keeping us away and making themselves look serious and important.
I’d really like to read what you think the great reward and common good for us all will be having these terrorist targets in town.
It’s a mong gabfest of has-beens who’s only motive is to stir trouble, keep us in check and make money.
I know where I would point those FA18s. Traditionally, assassination attempts on US Presidents are committed by US citizens.
Tear down all those photos hanging up in airports and police stations featuring swarthy persons with ragged beards and replace them with photos of large red faced persons with perfect dentistry and wearing loud plaid shirts!
Steve, not exactly sure what’s to get excited about.
Who would be house proud with this bunch arriving? And without sounding alarmist, I’m not too excited about something(s) being blown up while the pow-wow is on anyway.
Rod, if you wish to live in a backwater, where VIP’s & internation events never occur, then Australia has what you want, and in spades!
If you live in a world city, there are kudos which come with it. One of those is VIP’s will call in now & again.
Our national pride is on display during APEC. Anything anybody else can do, Australia can do as well if not better.
When it comes to world class cities, Sydney is Australia’s leading contender. Deal with that, or move to Brisbane/Cairns/Adelaide/Hobart/Griffith/Moree whereever!
If an extended visit from GWB wasn’t bad enough.
Move out of Sydney quick.
SATP sounds like he looking to franchise in the area.
World cities have the capacity for leaders, delegations, celebs… whatever, to visit 24/7.
What they don’t do is shut down half the city, ask Google Earth to pixelate the view from space or say, as the Deputy Premier of NSW has said, ‘We don’t want this because we can’t really cope with the required logistics’.
Sydney should be saying, ‘You work around us’ or ‘We do major events all the time, this is no biggy’. But they’re not.
The Olympics were fantastic, as is Mardi Gras, the City to Surf, every Australia Day and NYE on the harbour… but APEC is just a tacky photo op.
I am all for public disturbance, demos, and such, but tell me, what would any of you exactly be demonstrating against? Or do you all think you are 21st century James Deans ‘whatever you’ve got.’ If so, please post a photo.
You may be thinking of Chezk flyboys on bikes in “Deep Blue World”, Ms Keeler.
Gee mini-J you’re really determined to nail this non sequitur thnag aren’t you.
Also it was Marlon Brando who said that in “The Wild One” and not as you appear to think Dean in “Reebel Without A Cause”, though I can see, judgeing your behaviour here, how you might that mistake.
Back OT. This whole F-18 thing is just more Kabuki security theatre. But when you’re a client state entertaining the Western Emperor, protocol demands you put all your war elephants and such like on display for his Durbar.
Hey, if there’s Kabuki security theatre, then it has my full support.
Er, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the War of Terror, neo-liberal globalisation and its effects on workers and the environment, climate change, etc etc…
Nice to know you enjoy demo’s JG, hope to see you there!
I was shuddering at the thought of an ankle length oilskin with sheepman’s hat.
SATP, we are as one.
*Dies of coronary*
Nero might make them all wear Dunlop Volleys and green tracksuits and go with him on his morning ‘jog’ … dagadagadagadagadagadaga