Opinion: Sydney’s Event Politicisation Has Turned Meta

That’s right – the politicisation of Sydney’s events since 2014 has turned political….

Since 2014, the NSW Government has focused on lighting up the Sydney Opera House & the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons for marketing using projection mapping technology: the Tottenham Hotspur visit, an NBC Today Show broadcast (with fireworks), the 1st ever Sydney Swans vs Western Sydney Giants Australian Football League Finals match, all culminating in the infamous Everest Barrier Draw projection show of October 2018, which was repeated in 2019 on the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons.

After the Everest Barrier Draw fiasco, the Sydney Opera House wasn’t used for marketing anymore but instead, political posturing: the Christchurch mosque shootings, the Sri Lanka Easter bombings, the Beirut explosion, Greece’s 200th Anniversary of Independence, Italy’s Republic Day, the ANZUS Treaty’s 70th Anniversary, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the assassination of Shinzo Abe & India’s 75th Anniversary of Independance. Still, before the March state election, the NSW Coalition was promising to light it up for Israel’s 75th Anniversary Of Independence if it won it. The Federal Government also lit up the eastern Bennelong (smallest) sail & the Sydney Harbour Bridge for Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s visit in late May.

Last Wednesday, a Government Information (Public Access) request lodged by Liberal Chris Rath (Member Of Legislative Council) revealed a proposal to light up the Sydney Opera House just purple for the Coronation Of Charles III to cost around $30,000 and that the decision to cancel a more technically complicated planned projection of the King’s Cypher was “more political…from the Premier”, Chris Minns and not for “operational” or “conservation” reasons, according to public service e-mails.

It was also revealed that the cancellation involved the return of only 50% of the deposit. However, the cost of the deposit has not been revealed.

Back in May, the New South Wales (NSW) Premier referred to a cost of around $90,000 for the more complicated proposal which was declined for financial reasons and for the additional reason that there were alternative commemorations already planned.

He also justified the proposal’s rejection because the Sydney Opera House is lit up approximately twice a week – too often for a World Heritage site. Sydney Spectaculars agrees with this reason especially as we could not even keep up with the number of illuminations of the Sydney Opera House!

On radio 2GB’s The Ben Fordham Show, last Wednesday morning, Shadow Attorney-General, Alastair Henskens, gave the bizarre hypothetical consequence of the cancellation being a lost of trade & jobs from Great Britain. Never mind that he forgot about Northern Ireland, if losing trade and jobs is a major reason to light up the Sydney Opera House, then we would have to light it up for when China chooses it’s next President as China is our biggest trading partner.

In Question Time that same day, the NSW Premier, Chris Minns, was asked on this topic:

How can the public trust anything he says?

Opposition Leader, Mark Speakman

He avoided directly answering the question.

Later that day, the Premier said the simpler purple illumination proposal was not presented to him. It has been implied in the e-mails that his rejection of the more technically complicated Cypher projection was also an outright rejection of any proposal, so the simple purple illumination proposal was decided to not be presented to the Premier by public servants.

While much has been made about the mention of the word “political” in connection with a pro-republican anti-monarchical attitude by the Premier, Sydney Spectaculars cannot find any direct evidence for this. It is more likely a result of his policy of less Sydney Opera House projections, for the reasons outlined above.

There was no historical precedent for a Sydney Opera House projection given that the last Coronation was in 1953, over half a century before projection mapping technology arrived and 2 decades before the Sydney Opera House was built. While the Premier did light up the Sydney Opera House for the Matildas’ qualification past the group stage to the 3rd place playoff of the FIFA Women’s World Cup – Australia & New Zealand 2023 a few months later, this has been done before in similar circumstances.

In the end, the “political” decision was because of the politicisation of the Sydney Opera House projections since 2014. Sydney’s events are now metapolitical.