Councillor Chris Harris

When Deputy Lord Mayor Greens Cr. Chris Harris requested a motion of urgency to bring forward the debate on erecting a banner – ‘Cage Bush. Not Sydney’ – on the Town Hall, not one councillor supported him.

The reason Cr. Harris gave for this motion to be brought forward was that camera crews were waiting to record the debate and there was wide public interest in the issue.

Not surprisingly when the motion finally came up for debate, with one intrepid camera crew still present, neither the supposedly progressive Clover Moore independent team, nor the Liberals (predictably) nor Labor voted to even discuss the matter.

Deputy Lord Mayor Cr. Chris Harris: “I’m astonished that not even one other councillor was willing to stand up for the people of Sydney. Instead councillors used procedural rules to duck the issue on where they stand on the massive costs, loss of income and profits, not to mention loss of civil rights that are being born by the people who live, work and pay rates here. All in the name of protecting one man - George Bush.

“At the very least councilors could have acknowledged the draconian laws that allow our police unfettered powers to arrest people.”  Cr. Harris said

“They could have expressed their dismay at  the government spending $600,000 on a water cannon to use on its own citizens; the use of 31 state transit buses as mobile holding cells; the installation of 300 face recognition cameras surveying Sydney’s streets and the 2.8 metre high, 5km long cage erected around the heart of our city. But they didn’t.”

“My proposed ‘Cage Bush. Not Sydney’ banner juxtaposed what is actually happening. Sydney is being locked up because of the presence of one man and nine out ten of our councillors are not even prepared to comment on camera. We can only assume that the other councillors condone this lock-down of Sydney, the kidnapping of our civil rights and the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost income.” Cr. Harris said.