EIGHT FA-18 Hornet jet fighters, Blackhawk helicopters and the elite SAS will be guarding Perth this week as Julia Gillard hosts the largest-ever gathering of world leaders in Australia.
More than 40 prime ministers and presidents will be in WA for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and associated summits.
The Queen, who will attend on Friday, called for leaders to “find new ways to bring about positive change”.
Human rights activists, refugee supporters, the Greens and students are among those planning to protest outside the meeting.
But there could be sparks inside with human rights abuses in Commonwealth countries, particularly Sri Lanka which is scheduled to host the next CHOGM in 2013, shaping up as a key test for the future of the organisation.
Canada’s PM Stephen Harper says he will boycott the 2013 meeting if Sri Lanka does not make progress on the issue of human rights.
Australia has expressed concern directly to Sri Lanka about reports of human rights abuses and civilian deaths at the end of that country’s civil war.
A spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia had called on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to seriously look at allegations of war crimes and wanted Sri Lanka to address the findings of a top-level UN report.
Former High Court judge Michael Kirby is one of 11 eminent persons who have prepared a report on the future of the Commonwealth. Leaks have suggested the top secret report warns the Commonwealth is in danger of losing its relevance unless it finds a better way to take action against its own members who violate core values such as human rights.
Ms Gillard said she hoped reforms would “strengthen the Commonwealth’s ability to promote and uphold the values of democracy, the rule of law and human rights among its membership”.
“The Commonwealth has an opportunity – by virtue of its strengths- to carve out a new role for itself in the world and add real value to efforts to improve global governance and strengthen the rules-based global order,” she said.
Ms Gillard says she will use the meeting to discuss ways to strengthen food security, combat communicable diseases and ensure sustainable development of resources.
Ms Gillard said the Commonwealth was a unique organisation with a diverse mix of economies, faiths and cultures that brings together nations from six continents who account for one-third of the world’s population and one-fifth of global trade.
While the PMs from India and New Zealand are not attending and Fiji is suspended, CHOGM will attract leaders from countries such as Nigeria, Rwanda, Trinidad Tobago, Canada, Malaysia and South Africa.
Britain’s Conservative Party PM David Cameron is expected to make his first trip to Australia, and Ms Gillard will discuss climate change with him after he wrote to her in July supporting the carbon tax package.
It is costing Australia $59 million to host the meeting that also includes a gathering of 1000 Commonwealth business leaders and 130 youth leaders.
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