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So the APEC summit has drawn to a close without any serious massacres or assasination attempts coming to fruition, and they almost managed to slide it by without a comment from me. Almost.

I have two questions:

1. Why Sydney?

2. Why the over-zealous policing?

Why Sydney?

Having been to all but 2 of the mainland state capitals, and indeed to the seat of Australian Federal Government in Canberra in particular, I’m particularly intrigued as to why the decision was made to hold the APEC summit in Sydney.

One of the main reasons for my query is that all residents of Sydney were politely asked to vacate the area if at all possible, in fact they were given a special “long weekend” or bank holiday to aid them in their exodus. Where is the logic of taking a summit to the most populous place in the entire country only to ask it’s residents to leave?

Presumably they decided that the iconic backdrop of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge et al more than made up for the administrative struggles of handling a burgeoning urban population whilst trying to maintain a secure perimeter around some of the worlds most hated (!) figures.

Which leads on to my next question – why all the police brutality?

I appreciate that it is difficult to maintain security and that vigilance is the order of the day when one invites such huge security risks to amalgamate in one place at one time, however, I fail to see why this necessitates the purchase of a water cannon for $750,000…