A police warning saw Officeworks cease printing collateral for anti-G20 protestors ahead of this weekend’s financial summit in Cairns. The office supplies giant, which also provides digital printing to the public, says police ‘recommended’ to staff at the Cairns store that they stop printing the material – which included posters, flyers, banners, and stickers – and the store manager chose to comply.

The People’s Climate Change protest in Cairns, with home-made signage

Officeworks public relations manager Carla Carafa says the request was made as the material was being posted everywhere and defacing property. She says the decision was made at store level to keep the police happy and that it was a recommendation not a legal order. It is thought to have been a long time since a printer in Australia was told by authorities to stop printing a job where the content was not illegal. Some 800 extra police, with special powers, descended on Cairns for the meeting of finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s top 20 economic powers. There was only one rally involving about 100 peaceful protestors from the People’s Climate March demanding action on climate change. The weekend’s gathering was being treated as a test for the G20 leaders summit in Brisbane in November.

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