An APEC view from across the Tasman

A New Zealand Press Association report says the security fence is in place, the warning systems are installed, the water cannon is loaded……..Sydney is braced for APEC, for better or worse.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard extolled the benefits of APEC week with his now-customary address via the internet, on YouTube, as 20 world leaders prepare to descend on a city that is expected to grind to halt to traffic by Friday, a public holiday for lucky workers.

Reading their helpful Sydney Morning Herald four-page APEC survival guide, commuters were warned of major traffic delays.

But around the CBD there was little disruption on a warm spring Monday morning, with the 5km perimeter fence around the inner city, standing an imposing 2.8m high, causing intrigue as much as anything as Sydneysiders went about their business.

Police gathered in groups on street corners and at the entrance to train stations, helicopters buzzed overhead, while police cars were dotted around but hardly forced into action.

A bemused German tourist had the distinction of being the first to press police into action when he was detained briefly for taking a cellphone photo of the security fence.

The Daily Telegraph captured his confusion as he sat on the pavement, released with a warning after being told to delete the offending photos.

Anyone who even looks like a potential protester or organiser, possibly looking for “weak points” in the fence, is apparently not to be encouraged.

It starts to get interesting, or nightmarish, today when US President George Bush rumbles into town, with an 83km flight exclusion zone will be in place over Sydney’s skyline as Air Force One touches down, with widespread road closures for his motorcade as it wends its way to his luxury city hotel.

Courtesy of a Telegraph reporter, readers got a sneak peek inside Mr Bush’s lodgings for the four nights he spends in the city: a $A4,345-per-night ($NZ5138), seven room suite with a jacuzzi and breathtaking harbour views.

His motorcade will number more than 20 vehicles, with his presidential limousine specifically built to withstand a anti-tank grenade launchers thanks to 12cm of ballistic armour.

Outside the confines of the president’s security cocoon, the protests will heat up, with the Stop Bush Coalition, including left-leaning political groups and university students, planning to mark his arrival with a march at Town Hall.

Their big day is apparently Saturday, when the political leaders meet and more than 5000 are expected to march on the city and press the police into action.

Sydney police were dealt a blow in recent weeks with the outbreak of equine influenza, which hit their 35-strong horse population in the city’s south and ensured a quarantine lockdown and no mounted police this week.

Still, there’s the water cannon, mounted on a sinister, black truck, with the $A600,000 contraption proudly unveiled to the media last month, capable of shooting a single stream of water 50m and knock a protester clean off his or her feet. 

Trouble is expected, with five-hundred prison beds have been vacated for arrested protesters and Sydney police have been rehearsing their routines for weeks on quiet Sunday mornings in the city, with their own security motorcades getting a run-through.

And if the worst happens, warning sirens have been mounted on traffic lights at street corners, to be sounded if terrorism strikes.

For the record, the numbers are (courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald’s survival guide):-

** 21 leaders.

** 400 business executives.

** 1,500 media.

** 4,000 hotel rooms.

** 4,950 police.

** 800 security guards.

** 500 prison beds vacated for arrested protesters.

** 12,000 clearway road signs.

** 1 water cannon.

Report by The Mole