Alan Jones denies claims he bullied Opera House boss Louise Herron

Alan Jones takes nearly 15 minutes to defend himself against claims he bullied Opera House boss Louise Herron.

Alan Jones denies claims he bullied the CEO of the Opera House. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

Alan Jones has defended himself against claims he bullied Opera House boss Louise Herron during a heated on-air confrontation over plans to promote a horse race on its sails and doubled down on his call to have her sacked.

The radio host on Friday attacked Ms Herron and repeatedly told her she should be sacked after she ruled out allowing words or branding highlighting The Everest race to be projected onto the Opera House because “it’s not a billboard”.

“Who do you think you are?” Jones repeatedly asked Ms Herron. “You don’t own the Opera House … I’m telling you I will be speaking to (NSW Premier) Gladys Berejiklian in about five to three minutes and if you can’t come to the party you should lose your job.”

Jones said today Ms Herron had talked “nonsense” about the Opera House’s heritage when he wanted an answer.

In a monologue that last nearly quarter of an hour, Jones admitted he had said Ms Herron’s job should be on the line.

“Yes, I did say I believed her job should be on the line. She might have been representing some people but not the wider public,” he said on radio 2GB.

“It wasn’t an interview, I was seeking answers in limited time.

“She went on with all this nonsense about the heritage of the Opera House, and all I was wanting was an answer, yes or no.”

He also renewed his criticism of Ms Heron, saying he had been told she was a “tyrant”.

“Many people have had problems with the same lady in the past. I won’t go into those problems now. But plenty of correspondence [sic] has talked to me about her being a tyrant,” he said.

“Well done Louise, have you told your left-wing mates that no one has commercialised the Opera House more than you? What’s the issue with The Everest?”

Within hours of the Friday attack, Ms Berejiklian had intervened to allow Racing NSW to promote the Everest, which is the richest horse race on turf in the world, on the Opera House.

“There’ll be no logos or names — the only words on there are the words on the trophy itself,” she said.

As of this morning, more than 120,000 people had signed a change.org petition to “protect” the iconic building from “Alan Jones and his Gambling mates at Racing NSW”.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys on Monday told Sky News he and his staff had received death threats.

He also revealed Racing NSW had been negotiating with the state government for more than a year and initially wanted to use the Sydney Harbour Bridge to promote the race.

Mr V’landys also said a “vast majority” of the negotiations happened before Jones got involved last week.

“Call me naive but I certainly didn’t expect there would be such a reaction to us using the Opera House sails for 10 minutes to promote The Everest event internationally.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison weighed into the stoush saying he had no problem with the building being used to promote the race because such events generated economic benefits.

He told Jones on Monday he didn’t understand why people were tying themselves “up in knots” about it.

“It’s not like they’re painting it on there. I mean, it’s sort of lights flashing up there for a brief moment in time and that goes all around the world and they do it for other things,” Mr Morrison said.

Former Opera House CEO Michael Lynch called on Ms Berejiklian to pull the plug on allowing the Opera House to be used to promote “a shoddy horse race”. “This corrupts the way the Opera House works … and the artistic integrity of the building,” he told ABC radio.

Bill Shorten today accused Scott Morrison of disrespecting a national icon after the Prime Minister referred to the Opera House as the “biggest billboard Sydney has”.

Mr Shorten said he was not opposed to the promotion of horse racing, but questioned Mr Morrison’s description of the Opera House.

“I should declare an interest. My own electorate of Maribyrnong is home to both the Flemington race club and the Moonee Valley race club, so in fact I’m the local member for the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup, arguably, two of Australia, and indeed the world’s finest race meetings,” Mr Shorten said.

“So I like racing and I can see the impact that promoting racing brings to jobs, and so I’ve watched this argument about what should go on the Opera House or not, but I’ll tell you what has certainly solidified my thinking, it was Prime Minister Morrison’s intervention, where he described the Opera House as ‘Australia’s biggest billboard’?.

“I don’t think most Australians, when they think about the Opera House think of it as a billboard.

“To me, the Opera House is a representation of Australia’s capacity to build splendid things.

“Unlike Prime Minister Morrison, I don’t look at the Opera House and see a billboard, I see a remarkable Australian achievement.”

Asked whether the Sydney Opera House decision would have been overturned without pressure from Mr Jones, Mr Shorten said countries around the world battled with the arrival of new technology and being able to use new surfaces for advertising.

“I think periodically, if you look at everything from the Colosseum, built by the ancient Romans through to Big Ben, there are debates, but I think communities around the world draw the line at describing their national heritage as a billboard,” Mr Shorten said.

Mr Shorten defended Ms Herron over her interview with Jones.

“The Opera House employee is a paid employee. She wasn’t a politician or indeed a shock jock,” he said.

“I think she went on the show and displayed courtesy.

“She explained her position. I don’t think she received the same courtesy back to herself.”

Mr Shorten said Australia could not take its national heritage for granted.

“On one hand we should promote Australian sporting activity, we should promote national achievement, but I think Australians are concerned that if everything’s up for sale or everything’s for commercialisation, I would say to Prime Minister Morrison, you’re not a marketing executive, you’re the Prime Minister of Australia and that involves the obligation to respect our national icons,” he said.

“I think I do actually speak for a lot of Australians without getting into the ins and outs of promoting the horse races, which I like, the Opera House is not a billboard, it’s a thing of great beauty, it is part of our national treasure and deserves the respect that comes with it.

With AAP