Last thing Opera House saga needed was Alan Jones
ANY chance of a happy compromise vanished when the 2GB jock started hectoring. He doesn’t own this town, and we should now vow to leave our most iconic building alone, writes Miranda Devine.
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WITH friends like Alan Jones who needs enemies?
We will never know if the Opera House and the NSW government would have come to an amicable compromise about Racing NSW’s light show on the sails of Sydney’s most iconic building.
They easily might have. They’d been talking for weeks.
But the minute Jones began hectoring Opera House CEO Louise Herron on his 2GB radio show, any chance of a happy ending vanished.
All people would remember was his threat to ring the Premier and have her sacked.
“Who the hell do you think … you are?” he snarled.
“If I were Gladys Berejiklian, I would pick up the phone and sack you today”.
Admirably, Herron stuck to her guns, only to be overruled by Berejiklian in what looked like an abject capitulation to Jones, whether or not it was.
That is what sparked the anger that drove 300,000 signatures to an online petition defending Herron.
The backlash is a message to the government that Jones doesn’t own this town. Every craven politician, like Mike Baird, once papped on his way to a humiliating tongue lashing in the Toaster, should hang their head in shame.
Their duty is to the people of NSW, not to an unelected broadcaster.
Jones is often on the right side of arguments and has done a lot of good for charity.
But he went too far with Herron. At least he apologised yesterday.
Tonight should have been a pleasant occasion, bringing Sydney together in anticipation of a fantastic event, The Everest, that is a credit to Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys.
Instead, we had police in riot gear stationed on Bennelong Point.
We should now vow that the Opera House is left alone. No more Everest, no more Wallabies or Mardi Gras. Let one small patch of Sydney be left unadorned, an oasis of pristine beauty in a city where everything has a price.