2006 G20 summit - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The 2006 G-20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

between November 18 and November 19, 2006. Issues discussed included "the outlook for the global economy

World economy

The world economy, or global economy, generally refers to the economy, which is based on economies of all of the world's countries, national economies. Also global economy can be seen as the economy of global society and national economies – as economies of local societies, making the global one....

; developments in resource markets and ways to improve their efficiency; the impact of demographic change on global financial markets; and further reform of the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

and the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

Venue

The Grand Hyatt Melbourne Hotel was the venue for most of the events and was also the location where most of the dignitaries stayed.
this year countries like Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, America and the European Union

Security

Security throughout Melbourne was extremely tight for the duration of the summit. As of midnight November 14 parking was banned throughout the eastern CBD

Melbourne city centre

Melbourne City Centre is an area of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. It is not to be confused with the larger local government area of the City of Melbourne...

surrounding the Grand Hyatt.

Concern had been sparked that Victoria Police

Victoria Police

Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of Victoria, Australia. , the Victoria Police has over 12,190 sworn members, along with over 400 recruits, reservists and Protective Service Officers, and over 2,900 civilian staff across 393 police stations.-Early history:The Victoria Police...

may be overstretched due to the large amount of events in Melbourne that weekend, on top of the G20 summit there was a U2

U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

concert at the Telstra Dome

Telstra Dome

Docklands Stadium is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...

and a 'Make Poverty History' concert

Make Poverty History Concert

The Make Poverty History Concert was held on the night of November 17, 2006 produced by Dan Adams, Hugh Evans and John Connor at Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, Australia. The concert was timed to coincide with the G20 Summit which was being hosted by then-Australian Treasurer, Peter Costello...

at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Sidney Myer Music Bowl

The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain, close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct...

. Victoria Police also warned that protesters may attempt to occupy inner-city buildings, and they recommended "corporations (should) consider hiring extra security."

G20 Meeting

In a first for the G20 meeting, an elite business group was able to address the Finance Ministers and Reserve Bank leaders. A new organisation, the Energy and Minerals Business Council

Energy and Minerals Business Council

The Energy and Minerals Business Council is a global business forum of mining and energy corporations formed in 2006 with an inaugural meeting at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne Hotel, in Melbourne, Australia on 18 November and 19 November 2006...

comprising BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...

, Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto Group

The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...

and many of the world's most powerful mining and oil companies met in the same hotel and could lobby G20 delegates over a business lunch.

The meeting of finance ministers in their communique called for free markets in oil and other forms of energy, and warned that economic policy needed to be tightened to reign in big deficits and 'easy money'. "We need to take advantage of the present strength in the global economy to get policy settings right," they declared in their statement.

The ministers rejected Australia's timetable for reforming the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

and the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, but reiterated their commitment to reform.

Climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

was not on the formal agenda, but a strong push by chief secretary to the British Treasury, Stephen Timms

Stephen Timms

Stephen Creswell Timms is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for East Ham since 1994. He is a former Cabinet Minister having served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006 to 2007...

forced global warming

Global warming

Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

and the Stern Review
Stern Review
The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change is a 700-page report released for the British government on 30 October 2006 by economist Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and also chair of the Centre...

on the Economics of Climate Change to be briefly discussed as part of the context of promoting free markets as the way to energy security. The G20 communique said "We discussed the links between energy and climate change policy, including the role of market-based mechanisms, and agreed that the G-20 would monitor this issue."

Development aid was also given only brief discussion despite calls for development aid to be increased by Oxfam

Oxfam

Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...

and other non-governmental organisations.

Protests

On Friday the 17th there were several invasions in buildings by small bands of protesters in Melbourne, such as Orica

Orica

Orica is a multinational corporation that manufactures various chemical products. It is the largest supplier of mining explosives in the world. -History:...

where over 100 protest

Protest

A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

ers occupied the chemical services department, delivering a letter to the General Manager for mining chemicals, and faxing it to communities along a cyanide transport route. All ANZ branches in the Melbourne CBD were closed during the afternoon of November 17 due to protest action against ANZ investment in military industries.

Behaviour of protestors

The main anti-globalisation protest was organised by the StopG20 coalition for Saturday November 18. This march stopped at the police barricades in Russell Street where a festive carnival atmosphere prevailed. Some protesters moved to other streets, where confrontations with the police occurred, while most protesters who went to the main rally and march went home never being aware of the confrontations on other streets until they watched the news that evening.

On Collins

Collins Street, Melbourne

Collins Street is a major street in the Melbourne central business district and runs approximately east to west.It is notable as Melbourne's traditional main street and best known street, is often regarded as Australia's premier street, with some of the country's finest Victorian era buildings.The...

and Russell

Russell Street, Melbourne

Russell Street is a north-south street in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. At its southern end it intersects with Flinders Street and Federation Square, while at its northern end it becomes Lygon Street, a street famous for its...

Streets, barricades were ripped down and pushed at riot police who were called in to help quell the situation. A militant group of protesters known as the Arterial Bloc, dressed in white clothing with hoods covering their faces, collected industrial bins and dumpsters and used Melbourne's tram tracks to slide them into barricades and police, resulting in minor injuries to several police, the most serious being a broken wrist. At one stage a police riot truck was attacked with its windows smashed. By 15:00 local time, the nearby Grand Hyatt had gone into 'lock down'.

The organizers of the protesters had expected up to 10,000 people to come, however the number of people that showed was slightly over 3,000.

Behaviour of police

A preliminary report by an independent human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

observer team noted "high level overall of police discipline and restraint in the face of deliberately provocative actions by some protesters, lasting many hours" and "Police command were seen to be encouraging the consideration of force as a staged option, rather than as a first response, which is to be commended." However the report noted that "Our timeline analysis points to a decline in police restraint over a period of time”.

Late Saturday evening about 100 Police attacked a festive gathering outside Parliament House.

On Sunday police in a running baton charge attacked a small group of anti-G20 protesters at the Melbourne Museum causing injuries to one person requiring an ambulance. The same day, non-uniformed police detained a man, Drasko Bolejevic, after he was mistakenly identified as being involved with the G20 protests. Mr Bolejevic alleged he was abused and assaulted before being released from custody without charge two hours later.

Operation Salver

Victoria Police

set up Operation Salver to investigate further possible charges from the G20 protest. In January 2007 police released to the media 28 photos of 'persons of interest' to their investigation. Terry O'Gorman from the Australian Council for Civil Liberties

Australian Council for Civil Liberties

The Australian Council for Civil Liberties is a Civil Liberties group based in Australia. The president of this organisation is currently Terry O'Gorman who is also the vice president of the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties....

described their publication as an "impermissible and unfair practice" and "Because of the longstanding court rules that where identity is an issue, photographs should not be published, the police, in publishing these photographs, have gone beyond what is permissible and should be criticised for it," As of March 2007, 40 people have been arrested over the protest on charges including riot, affray, and criminal damage. No police have been disciplined for their behaviour.