Editorial: Opera House survives after hundreds protest over The Everest illumination
SYDNEY’S greatest symbol has prevailed against merciless odds. This morning our Opera House somehow remains in one piece following last night’s traumatic illumination event. Much of The Everest show was driven by online enemies of broadcaster Alan Jones.
Opinion
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TWO of the most stirring lines in the US national anthem are delivered midway through The Star-Spangled Banner’s opening verse:
“And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
“Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”
Francis Scott Key penned those lines in 1812 after seeing a US flag remain intact throughout the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British warships. The flag’s survival came to be a symbol of American resilience.
We in Sydney may now feel a similar pride after our own city’s greatest symbol also prevailed against merciless odds. This morning our Opera House somehow remains in one piece following last night’s traumatic illumination event.
For several days, many in Sydney whipped that benign occasion into a catastrophe equal in menace to the bombing of Darwin. Online reaction to plans for a brief light show to promote this Saturday’s second running of The Everest at Royal Randwick was hysterical.
Going by that reaction, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Opera House faced a challenge to its actual physical being rather than merely being decorated for a few minutes with colours and numbers.
Much of the opposition to last night’s Everest light show was driven by online enemies of broadcaster Alan Jones, who had championed the promotion in a heated exchange with Opera House chief executive Louise Herron.
Jones’s part in that exchange was too heated, for which he subsequently apologised. But his foes were just as heated during their campaign to present the broadcaster as a tyrant capable of bending the NSW government to his will.
According to Jones’s enemies, he pressured Premier Gladys Berejiklian into forcing Opera House management to go ahead with last night’s light show.
In fact, as The Daily Telegraph yesterday reported, the government supported the promotion all along and worked hard to make it a reality.
Putting it very kindly, our report noted: “A clear misunderstanding of what was going on behind the scenes has severely marred this debate.”
In any case, this morning dawned with our architectural landmark upright and elegant as always. As Francis Scott Key might have put it, the Opera House is still there.
Benaud gives her blessing
THROUGHOUT her long marriage, Daphne Benaud’s elegance and ease were always the equal of husband’s Richie’s famously reserved commentary style.
And just like the former Test captain turned commentator, Daphne Benaud was always a champion of positive change — and still is.
“I think this is new and exciting,” Ms Benaud said yesterday at Fox Cricket’s VIP launch party.
“The new and the old (guard) will blend together brilliantly, I just know.”
As Fox Cricket prepares for its first season, her words mean a great deal. Daphne Benaud’s endorsement is as good as it gets.
Good idea to prepare first
FOREIGN visitors to Australia are sometimes surprised that population is a serious issue here. After all, they wonder, Australia has just 25 million people in an enormous area of land. What’s the problem?
Well, the problem is that, while we do have a lot of land, we do not have a great many cities and towns.
This is why recent high immigration levels are causing housing shortages and various other problems such as overburdened health care systems, road congestion and crowded classrooms.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian, herself the daughter of immigrants, is now calling for NSW to slash migrant intakes by up to half of our present level.
Declaring it is time to “take a breather on immigration levels”, the Premier voiced her desire that we “return to Howard-era immigration levels in NSW”.
This would be quite a cut, from up to almost 100,000 immigrants to NSW in recent years way down to annual Howard-era number below 50,000.
Immigration can later be increased. Just let us build the roads, hospitals, schools and houses first.