The theme for the 2007 Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum is 'Strengthening our community: Building a sustainable future', an honourable one. The questions should be asked who’s involved in the co-operation and why, and sustainable for whom? Visit the APEC website and it’ll tell you that this is the most significant event of an economic kind that Australia has hosted.
Look further and you’ll get a glimpse of the priority the Australian Government has for things economic, acknowledging the role the business community has in driving and shaping the APEC agenda. As well as the meeting of 21 national leaders from the Asia Pacific rim, there will be a Business Summit for the region's most prominent business leaders: an invitation only event initiated by Australia. APEC is good for business.
APEC’s agenda is trade liberalisation and economic growth. The preparations have indicated what kind — BIG! Big security, big business, big voices, big spending! According to AFTINET, the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, 'The cost to taxpayers of hosting APEC is now reaching $330 million, $170 million of which will be spent on security arrangements. There are even greater costs to democratic rights and civil liberties.' Though APEC makes recommendations about issues affecting the whole society it does not engage with civil society groups. Is this the way to strengthen our community and build a sustainable future?
The social and economic differences between the 21 countries are huge and the challenges many and complex. In 2003, Dr Mahatir from Malaysia voiced the concerns of the poorer countries, telling the rich nations they were not giving due consideration to the poor nations. On the table are the issues of climate change, energy, security and non-proliferation. When the interests of the profitability of large corporations are at stake, human rights and the needs of all are further down the pecking order.
Climate change is the most urgent issue. Clive Hamilton in his book Scorcher: The Dirty Politics of Climate Change details the influence of a 'greenhouse mafia' of executives from the mining, coal, aluminium and energy sectors on government decision making. He points out how the alternatives to the fossil fuel industry, insert and the renewable energy sector were marginalised in Australia and denied research funding. He describes the Australian Government’s strategy on climate change as 'do nothing at home and work hard to prevent others taking action.'
After 11 years of obfuscation