Auckland's size big advantage: Shipley

By Warren Gamble

Auckland will not match Kuala Lumpur for plush hotels, police numbers and an exotic-retreat venue, but organisers of next year's Apec summit say we can still do it better.

The Prime Minister, Jenny Shipley, says Auckland's smaller size will be its biggest advantage over the Malaysian capital which held the summit this month.

In Kuala Lumpur, the ferrying of leaders between five-star hotels often took more than half an hour despite rolling motorway closures.

"The great beauty of Auckland city is that most of our main facilities are almost within shouting distance," she said, referring to the main meeting venues at the Auckland Town Hall and the Auckland Museum.

"So in convenience, good use of time and minimising the impact on the population, the nature of our city will give a huge advantage."

New Zealand is also likely to capitalise on the shadow cast over the Malaysian summit by domestic political upheavals and United States Vice-President Al Gore's controversial pro-reform speech.

Mrs Shipley said there was always a risk that politics would intrude, but she did not believe it would happen next year.

"My sense was that among the leaders, they were committed to avoiding that happening in future."

New Zealand offered a "wonderfully neutral" environment in which to get the focus back on trade policies.

Mrs Shipley said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Don McKinnon, and officials had been up front about signalling that some of the larger delegations need to cut their numbers to fit Auckland's smaller infrastructure.

Superintendent Peter Marshall, who is overseeing Apec police operations in Auckland, said the visiting motorcades would have to be smaller than in Malaysia, where Mr Gore had more than 30 vehicles.

He was told it would have been 50 vehicles if President Clinton had attended.

Auckland's more compact roading network could not cope with the potential 84 motorcades, and representatives in Kuala Lumpur had been informed of this, he said.

Apec in Auckland would involve slightly more than 2000 police officers, compared with 5800 in Malaysia, which would require a different approach, Mr Marshall said.

In Kuala Lumpur, Apec organisers had saturated the larger hotels with up to 400 police. In Auckland, policing would be more outward-looking, focusing on controlling access.

The director of communications for the Auckland taskforce, Peter Parussini, said 70 per cent of the 4500 beds needed in the central business district had been secured and negotiations were continuing for the rest.

That accommodation would host leaders, ministers, key delegates and the international media. The estimated 2500 other officials would be housed further out.

Mr Parussini said the Kuala Lumpur experience had emphasised that Apec would be the largest single event New Zealand had hosted.

Kuala Lumpur's summit had taught a myriad of lessons, he said. Among the most salient was the need for a backup sound system, after a communication fault had silenced the start of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's summit-ending speech.