Govt rejects Apec day off

By Chris Daniels

The Government has gone against police advice and decided not to declare a public holiday during Apec.

Traffic and police planners had been lobbying for a national holiday, to reduce pressure on Auckland roads during the September conference of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum leaders.

Foreign Affairs Minister Don McKinnon rejected the idea yesterday, just hours after police issued plans for road closures and secure routes to conference venues and hotels.

Parts of the central business district will be closed for the summit's three-day session. Three routes connecting the city with the airport have been chosen and will be closed when leaders use them.

People living and working along these feeder routes will be inconvenienced most.

The decisions on which routes will be used will not be taken until the last minute.

Once a route is selected, drivers will have to leave it immediately, and any parked cars along its length will be towed away. Major arterial roads will be closed for more than half an hour at a time.

Twenty-one leaders, including those of the US, Japan, Russia, China, Canada and Australia, are expected at Apec.

Police say they will allow legal protests, including people holding placards, along the routes and in the central business district during the summit, from September 11 to 13.

But the police bid to help clear the city by having Monday, September 13, declared a public holiday won no favour with Mr McKinnon, who said the overall impact on business and the economy would have been too great.

When other cities have hosted the conference, people have been given a day off work. Hopes had been raised that this would happen in New Zealand also, particularly given that the two non-transferable public holidays - Anzac Day and Waitangi Day - are both on weekends this year.

"Police would like to have seen a national holiday," said a special operations planning officer, Inspector Brent Holmes.

But Mr McKinnon said there was no real need for one. He based his opinion on advice from the police and other agencies and employers' indications that they would be "very cooperative" on the Monday.