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New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has hailed the dedication of a statue of a Kiwi soldier on Sydney's Anzac Bridge but expatriates are angry they were barred from the ceremony.
The granddaughter of a NZ soldier who died at Gallipoli was one of about 100 expatriate New Zealanders refused entry to today's ceremony after officials closed traffic and pedestrian access for more than five hours.
Flags on the bridge were lowered to half mast as the last post was sounded, followed by a minute's silence and a fly-by by an RAAF jet fighter at 9.30am (AEST).
NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark told the dedication ceremony that ties between the two countries were “as close as it gets,” while NSW Premier Morris Iemma described the trans-Tasman relationship as “our truest and greatest friendship”.
“Today, we reaffirm the bonds which exist between our two countries – and resonate strongly to this day.”
NZ World War II veteran Bob McCombe, 87, one of dozens of war veterans invited to the ceremony, said the event was a “tremendous stepping stone” towards improving the bond between the two countries.
However, many of the dozens of expatriate New Zealanders who made the journey to the bridge today, said they were bitterly disappointed.
Janet Statham, 55, wanted to pay her respects to her grandfather Frank Statham who died at Gallipoli in August 1915, but was told by police to stay behind a wire fence.
“Everybody was just so upset that they weren't able to be part of the whole process,” Ms Statham said.
“It was just such a wonderful opportunity to commemorate what our forbears did and also to build that relationship. To be excluded was really quite hurtful.”
Police stopped about 100 people, including several ex-servicemen, their families and the sculptor's brother, Ms Statham said. “It was a tragedy really.”
Sydneysiders Trevor and Gay Fitzsimmons said “everything was closed to the public”.
“It was disappointing, because I didn't think it was well publicised that it would be closed ceremony,” Mr Fitzsimmons said.
- By John Richardson at 27 Apr 2008 - 6:48pm
- John Richardson's blog
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keeping us safe ..... still ....
mike carlton lights-up …..
Morris Iemma was there. The New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, and her startling teeth were there. Defence personnel from both countries oom-pahed back and forth for the TV cameras. But the public was banned. Ordinary folk who had turned up to see the show, many of them expatriate Kiwis, were ordered off the bridge by the police for "security reasons".
What were those reasons? Was there some clear and present danger, a threat to peace and order, life and limb? Did the ASIO spooks have word that, far away in his snowy mountain fastness in the Hindu Kush, Osama bin Laden had planned another atrocity for the occasion? Or was the State Government, growing more unpopular by the hour, fearful of a latter-day Captain de Groot galloping up with sabre drawn?
None of the above, I suspect. Put it down to arrogance and incompetence. The cops kept the public off the Anzac Bridge simply because it made life easier for them. When you give extraordinary powers to the police and "security forces" to boss people around they tend to use those powers. Not for any good reason. Like dogs licking their testicles, they do it because they can and it feels good.
We saw the same sort of thing happen at last year's APEC summit in Sydney, when the city was "locked down" (and aren't you sick of hearing that phrase?) behind a ring of steel so formidable it could be penetrated only by crack teams of highly trained ABC television comedians. No doubt we will see the same officious push and shove when the Pope is here for the World Youth Day jamboree in July.
Granted, the petty stupidity on the Anzac Bridge was not the end of the world, but the people who were turned away had every right to be angry. It was another example of the way the so-called anti-terrorism laws have chiselled away at our rights and freedoms in the name of security.
Anzac Bridge Farce Shows How 'Security' Has Cost Us Our Freedom