Advert on sails of Sydney Opera House is dividing Australians

Plans to advertise a horse racing event on the sails of the Sydney Opera House have divided Australians.

Images publicising the Everest horse race will be projected onto the famous World Heritage Site on Tuesday October 9.

But now Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been forced to defend the decision, after the Opera House’s Chief Executive Louise Herron vigorously opposed it.

Since then, more than 130,000 people have signed an online petition to stop the promotion – but it is still planned to go ahead.

Mr Morrison, a former tourism marketer, defended the advert, calling the Opera House the ‘biggest billboard Sydney has’.

‘These events generate massive economic opportunities. I don’t know why people are getting so precious about it,” Mr Morrison said.

He continued: ‘It’s not as if they’re painting it on there. I mean, it’s some lights flashing up there for a brief moment of time.

‘I just don’t understand why we tie ourselves up in knots about these things.’

Protesters are concerned that the promotion could damage the Opera House’s value as an iconic landmark, branding it as  ‘crass commercialism’.

Graham Quint, a National Trust of Australia manager, went as far as suggesting the advertising went against federal and state laws governing use of the Opera House.

‘The World Heritage listing requires not only that the building be preserved in its fabric, but also that it be presented properly … and no way under the current conservation management plan should this be allowed,’ Mr Quint said.

While Tim Costello, a spokesman for the Alliance for Gambling Reform, said that the advert demonstrated the power of the Australian horse racing industry, which made a profit of 3.3 billion Australian dollars (£1.7 billion) last year.

‘The gambling lobby, particularly in New South Wales, is the equivalent of the National Rifle Association in America. It … has politicians in the palm of its hand,’ the anti-gambling campaigner told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has also defended the decision, stating that the original promotion has now been toned down to fit people’s tastes.

‘It’s important for us to support our major events, it’s important for us to promote New South Wales but, of course, do it in good taste and I believe that tomorrow evening strikes that right balance,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Monday.

She went on to describe the Sydney horse race, which will take place on Sunday October 14, as ‘a global event that receives global attention’.

Racing NSW have since come forward to state that they had originally wanted their promotion to be shown on Sydney Harbour Bridge.

According to Chief Excecutive Peter V’landys, the state blocked the move and offered the Sydney Opera House as an alternative.

‘Let’s be clear, Racing NSW never intended for the sails of the Opera House to be used as a billboard,’ Mr V’landys wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

This is not the first time the sails of the Sydney Opera House have been used to draw attention to an event, with venue lit up in green and gold for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The projected colours served as a good luck messages to athletes before the Opening Ceremony took place.

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