Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he doesn’t understand why people are “tying themselves up in knots” about a plan to project an advertisement for a lucrative horse race on the sails of the Opera House.
Mr Morrison spoke with Sydney radio heavyweight Alan Jones on Monday morning, after Mr Jones lobbied for the Racing NSW ad to go ahead.
Opera House management originally said no to the Everest Cup ad, but was overruled by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian after intense advocacy from Mr Jones on his 2GB radio show.
“I just don’t understand why we’re tying ourselves up in knots about this,” Mr Morrison told the broadcaster on Monday morning.
“It’s not like they’re painting it up there.”
On Friday, Ms Berejiklian ordered Opera House management to allow the advertising, saying “timeliness” was an issue ahead of the race itself on Tuesday.
Mr Morrison entered the fray on the weekend, saying the Opera House was the “biggest billboard Sydney has”.
'Desecration'
The promotion includes showing the barrier draw on the sails and images of the Everest Cup itself.
As of Monday morning, more than 100,000 people had signed a change.org petition to "protect" the iconoic building from "Alan Jones and his Gambling mates at Racing NSW".
"I wanted to show support for Louise Herron's resistance to putting gambling advertising on our city and state's most recognisable landmark," petition organiser Mike Woodcock wrote.
The son of Peter Hall, the architect who oversaw the completion of the opera House, described the plan as a "desecration".
"My father would have been sickened by it ... he would not have condoned advertising on the building in any way, lucky he's not around to see the desecration of our beautiful iconic masterpiece," Willy Hall told Fairfax Media.
