JOSHUA WELLS
Brisbane’s marketing department has been in full swing to show the city off to the world.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk believes that the next few weeks will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the city.
“The G20 will be the biggest gathering of world leaders in Brisbane in our lifetime and for three days Brisbane will be the capital of the world,” he said.
“We conservatively estimate the G20 summit will pump more than $100M directly into the local economy.
“Everyone in Brisbane should be proud to host such an event and by the time the G20 is over I want the world to know that Brisbane is a rising star in the Asia Pacific and a key economic development hub.”
In contrast a high number of protest groups have registered with the Queensland Police Service with intentions to drive the conversation away from Brisbane.
Anonymous protestor ‘Peter’ wants to drive the attention to the government’s relationship with business.
“We need more people to wake up. Realise that our government is not doing what we want them to do, they do not work for our interest, they work for the multi billionaire corporations and thus they don’t work for the people,” he said.
“Anonymous to me is no matter what I look like. I am a human with human rights and our government, and also governments around the world, are denying people’s human rights to live freely and our rights to freedom of information.”
Another group looking to create headlines is anarchist group Black Bloc.
Black Bloc created headlines around the world during the infamous Toronto G20 Summit in 2010 after setting police cars alight.
On their website it states that Black Bloc is not an organisation but rather a tactic.
“It helps reinforce security and execute our goal in the presence of high-profile demonstrations.” it continued.
Although anarchist protests may be present in Brisbane, most will be peaceful.
Over 4000 members of various police forces around the country are set to descend on Brisbane City in support of the summit.