The Opera House’ status as a World Heritage item accentuated the need to respect its status,she said.
“If we said yes to this,‘we’re fine put the Everest logo on there'our policy is worthless to us,we’re just going to allow whoever comes along to use the Opera House as a billboard,’ we would lose our World Heritage status,” Ms Herron said.
Alan Jones and Louise Herron have butted heads on air over the promotion of the Everest horse race on the sails of the Sydney Opera House. Credit:Fairfax Media
“We would be seen in the global community as not respecting this jewel,this masterpiece of human creative genius that is the greatest building of the 20th Century.”
Ms Herron,appointed to the position in 2012,said the government’s enthusiasm to promote the Everest horse race meant that the Opera House had been looking to come to a compromise. She was happy to have the racing colours of the jockeys projected onto the sails.
“The government wants something to happen. Something will happen,I have no doubt. At the very least the colours will go up. And that’s fine.”
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But the government could also direct the Opera House to include more detail in the projections,as desired by Racing NSW. “We will support the government’s position… as we always do.”
With the race to be held on Saturday,October 13,there is an urgent need for a decision either way.
The chief executive of Racing NSW,Peter V’Landys told 2GB that merely projecting racing colours onto the Opera House would not be good enough.
"You can't do a barrier draw without putting the horses'name and the number,"Mr V'landys said."That's the whole idea of the promotion ... to beam that around the world."
Racing NSW’s proposal,obtained by theHerald,includes projecting a list of runners onto one sail,while the horses selected in the barrier draw would be promoted on another sail.
Asked what she thought of the proposal,Ms Herron laughed. “Well what can you say? Just so inappropriate.”
The Sydney Opera House during Vivid earlier this year.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Opposition leader Luke Foley supports the Racing NSW plan,and Federal Labor MP Anthony Albanese phoned into ABC Radio on Friday morning to say he supported the plan as well.
“People should chill out a bit,” Mr Albanese said. “The fact is that this race is beamed around the world. People do associate Sydney with the Sydney Opera House.”
At the conclusion of his interview on Friday,Jones told Ms Herron he would be talking to the Premier,Gladys Berejiklian,within five minutes and that if Ms Herron did not come to the party she should “lose your job."
But Ms Herron said she had received a lot of support from the government since that interview.
“I feel very supported by the board,I feel very supported by the government,and I feel very supported by the community. I wouldn’t feel that supported by Alan Jones,but by the rest I certainly do.”
Neither Ms Berejiklian nor the Arts Minister Don Harwin have responded to requests for comment.