Over 150,000 people have signed a petition calling for the Sydney Opera House to be defended, after New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian forced management of the iconic landmark to feature advertising for an upcoming horse racing event.
On Tuesday night, the sails of the Sydney Opera House will have the horses' names and logos for The Everest race projected onto it, ahead of the event at Randwick Racecourse on Saturday.
It's not out of the ordinary for things to be projected onto the building. It is a feature of the Vivid Festival, for instance.
But the Sydney Opera House had originally opposed any logos or horse names being projected onto the sails, instead offering for the colours of the Everest jockeys' silks to be put on the sails instead.
This became a point of contention when Racing NSW began campaigning in Sydney's tabloid newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, with CEO Peter V'landys complaining "elites" wanted to stop him projecting logos and images for the $13 million event that costs $600,000 per horse to enter.
Things ramped up a bit when V'landys went on right wing radio station 2GB with Sydney Opera House CEO Louise Herron on Friday.
Host Alan Jones, notorious for the influence he exerts over state and federal politicians, has been accused of bullying Herron in the interview.
Herron explained to Jones that because of the Opera House's Heritage status, putting text onto the sails was a no-go.
Jones went ballistic.
"So they're going to damage it are they?" Jones demanded to know. "We own the Opera House. Do you get that message? You don't. You manage it."
Jones suggested that if he was the NSW premier, he would "pick up the phone and sack [Herron] today".
Herron explained it wasn't a billboard.
"Who said? You," Jones replied. "Who the hell do you think … who do you think you are?"
Not long after the interview, Jones got his way. NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announced that she would overrule the Sydney Opera House and force it to give Racing NSW what it wanted.
People are now mad about it, not only because of the advertising for the horse race on the Sydney Opera House, but because the government has been seen to give in to Jones' demands and rewarded his behaviour in his interview with Herron.
I suspect most Australians regard the Opera House as I do. It’s a national asset and should not be used in this disgraceful fashion. Louise Herron has been treated equally disgracefully. https://t.co/s5edNpgAWh
SOCIAL COMMENTARY
@russellcrowe I feel disappointed for Australians who revere this beautifully iconic building and the culture it represents. I’m sure ‘billboard backdrop for gambling’ was never part of the original blueprint for this majestic silouette .☹️
A Change.org petition has over 150,000 signatures calling for people to back Herron's position. A Facebook event calling for people to project their own lights onto the building, over the Everest projections, on Tuesday night has over 2,500 people indicating they plan to attend.
Some people, however, are pointing out that the Sydney Opera House has been used in the past to advertise the Ashes cricket tournament, rugby, the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras and a Samsung event.
But Herron pointed out on 2GB that those events did not use logos or text, except in the case of the Ashes, where Herron said the Opera House was directed to put it on by the NSW government.
Prime minister Scott Morrison has backed the Berejiklian move on Sunday, saying it made sense to put it on "the biggest billboard Sydney has".
He then told Jones on Monday that he didn't understand why everyone was making a fuss about it, after Jones had made a fuss about it.
“It’s not as though they’re painting it on there," he said. "It’s some lights flashing up there for a brief moment in time and that goes all around the world," he said.
“And they do it for other things, the Wallabies indeed and others. I just don’t understand why we tie ourselves up in knots about these things.”
Some Labor MPs have also spoken out in support of the advertising. NSW opposition leader Luke Foley said he was in favour of it, and Labor's shadow minister for tourism Anthony Albanese said it was a "good thing" for Australia.
"People should chill out a bit. The fact is that this race is beamed around the world. People do associate Sydney with the Sydney Opera House," Albanese said on ABC radio. "I think any time that the Sydney Opera House is shown on TV in Beijing or London or Washington or wherever else is a good thing for Australia.
"Tourism employs a million people and we need to take every opportunity there is to promote Sydney as Australia's global city."
Labor's deputy federal leader Tanya Plibersek called the projection "tacky".
One of the best possible advertisements for Australia? Protecting our beautiful Opera House. Ads on the Opera House: just tacky. If this advertising is okay, what next?
The Sydney Opera House is in Plibersek's electorate.
On Monday morning opposition leader Bill Shorten said he liked horse racing, but said he didn't like Morrison describing the Opera House as a billboard.
"I don't think most Australians, when they think about the Opera House, think of it as a billboard," he said. "For me, what the Opera House means is that we're capable of ... building things of great beauty."
On Monday Jones denied he had bullied Herron, stating in his opening monologue that "strident criticism will always be interpreted as bullying".
He denied he was treating Herron differently because she was a woman.
"It was tough stuff on a tough issue. Men and women are treated equally on this program. I thought that was the kind of equality people like you seek."
He said he didn't ask the NSW premier to "get rid" of Herron.
People have also questioned whether Jones has a personal stake in promoting the event. Fairfax reported on the weekend that Jones, through his company, has interests in horses in the race.
In an opinion piece on Monday V'landys said that Racing NSW had been trying to get the projections on the Harbour Bridge instead, and the Opera House was a compromise option. He argued that people couldn't conflate horse racing with gambling, and it had been part of Australia "since colonisation".
"It was first conducted to lift the morale of Australia’s first workforce. Like it or not, it’s in our DNA."