Economist.com Cities Guide: Sydney Briefing - November 2005

News this month

The enemy within

The threat of terrorism is making locals jittery. This was heightened on November 8th, when police arrested 17 men in the outer suburbs of Sydney and Melbourne in Australia’s biggest counter-terrorism operation. Another man was arrested later in Sydney. Police charged the eight men arrested in Sydney with conspiring to plan a terrorist act by stockpiling explosives. The men had allegedly also gone for terrorist training at two outback properties in New South Wales, and considered targeting Australia's only nuclear reactor, in the Sydney suburb of Lucas Heights. One of the men was shot and wounded by police after allegedly producing a weapon. Carl Scully, the New South Wales state police minister, reported announced that Sydney had been saved from a “potentially catastrophic terrorist act.”

The raids came after an 18-month investigation. They were in areas where large numbers of Middle Eastern and Muslim immigrants live, although all of those arrested were Australian citizens or residents. A court is due to hear bail applications on December 5th, but defence lawyers have questioned whether a fair trial is possible, given the publicity. One lawyer said the men held in Sydney's Silverwater Jail, a maximum security prison, were being subjected to “Guantánamo Bay-style conditions.”

Speak while you can

The arrests on November 8th come amid controversy over plans for tougher anti-terrorism laws in Australia. The conservative coalition government of John Howard, the prime minister, introduced legislation on November 2nd giving police powers to hold suspects for 14 days without charge, and to fit them with tracking devices for a year. He cited intelligence pointing to a “specific” terrorist threat to the country. The raids would seem to give credence to Mr Howard's justification, but critics of the legislation (and some police officials) say the raids show that the existing powers are enough.

Civil libertarians argue that the proposed legislation would have a chilling impact on freedom of expression. The most contentious section makes sedition a crime punishable with a seven-year prison sentence. “Seditious intention” is defined as urging “disaffection” against the constitution, the government or parliament, and promoting “ill will” between groups. It will also be an offence to subject “the Sovereign” (Queen Elizabeth, Australia’s head of state) to hatred or contempt. Protests against the new laws have been widespread, culminating in a sold-out performance of “Sedition!”, a one-night theatrical revue by some of Australia's most prominent actors and satirists, in Sydney on November 13th.

The hole story

The construction of Sydney's latest traffic tunnel is causing sleepless nights for some. In the early hours of November 2nd, the residents of Kerslake, an apartment building in the suburb of Lane Cove, were shaken awake when the ground under the building collapsed, leaving the front of the building poised precariously over a gaping ten-metre-deep hole. All 47 residents were safely evacuated.

The subsidence was caused by the construction of the Lane Cove Tunnel, a A$1.1 billion ($800m) traffic tunnel linking the northern approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge with the M2 freeway through north-west Sydney. Leighton Holdings, a construction company that had been building an underground ventilation shaft for the tunnel, blamed the collapse on the weakness of the sandstone through which it was tunnelling. Confusion over the site of the shaft has also been cited by local media. Kerslake's residents are now considering an offer from the tunnel's builders to buy their building, and construction of the tunnel (due to open in 2007) has been halted while an inquiry into the collapse proceeds.

HIHs and lows

The failure of the HIH insurance group, Australia's biggest corporate collapse, continues to claim scalps. HIH went into liquidation in 2001 with debts of A$5.3 billion. On October 31st the trial of Brad Cooper, one of Sydney’s more flamboyant business figures, ended when he was found guilty on 13 related charges of bribery and publishing false statements. Earlier this year, Ray Williams, the company’s founder and chief executive, and Rodney Adler, a former director, were each given prison sentences.

Mr Cooper entered the HIH orbit when he sold a home-security business to FAI, an insurance company which Mr Adler ran before HIH took it over in 1999. But the two men later fell out. His trial unravelled a story of how he bribed Bill Howard, HIH’s former general manager, with A$124,000 in order to get A$6.7m that he claimed HIH owed him. Mr Howard himself was charged, but got a suspended prison sentence in 2003 after he agreed to testify. Mr Cooper himself is due to be sentenced in early December; the charges against him carry a combined maximum sentence of 77 years.

Staying afloat

One of Sydney’s biggest tourist attractions is facing financial trouble. As it prepares to launch its annual season of parties, parades and cultural events in early 2006, the operating company of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival announced a loss of A$305,000 on the 2005 festival. Making matters worse, the company was hit by a lower-than-expected attendance at a big dance party in October, known as the Sleaze Ball, proceeds from which fund most of the festival.
Marcus Bourget, chairman of New Mardi Gras (NMG), the operating company, said he was looking at new business models and revenue sources. He suggested it may sell naming rights to festival events, including the annual gay-pride parade of floats and marchers along Oxford Street, Sydney’s gay centre, in March. The festival is one of the biggest single generators of wealth on Sydney's tourist scene: an academic study commissioned by NMG showed that a survey group of 9,000 visitors from outside Sydney to the 2005 festival contributed A$46m to the New South Wales state economy.

Catch if you can

November 2005

“Stuff All Happens”

Until December 17th 2005

This new production from the Wharf Revue team is a welcome political satire. Adapting the title from “Stuff Happens”, David Hare’s play about the build-up to the Iraq war, the team offers a different take on the deadly serious world of politics in an age of terrorism. Jonathan Biggins, Drew Forsythe and Philip Scott, familiar faces from previous seasons, are joined by Genevieve Lemon for an evening in which few of Australia's prominent political figures are spared.

The show is timely: many writers reckon satire such as this could be compromised under the proposed draconian anti-terrorism laws, which make sedition a crime.

Wharf2, Sydney Theatre Company, Walsh Bay, Sydney. Tel: +61 (02) 9250 1777. See the company's website.

More from the Sydney cultural calendar