Ms Herron had appeared on Jones' 2GB show on Friday to discuss her opposition to parts of the plan to project The Everest barrier draw on the Opera House sails on Tuesday night. Later that day the state government ordered the Opera House to project the draw on the Opera House sails, which will include jockeys' colours, barrier numbers and The Everest trophy. Alan Jones has apologised to Opera House boss Louise Herron. Credit:Fairfax In a fiery interview, Ms Herron told Jones the Opera House was "not a billboard" but she was happy to project jockeys' colours on the sails. Jones responded by saying: "Who the hell do you think ... who do you think you are?"

He also called for Ms Herron to be sacked. Loading In a 14-minute monologue on Monday, Jones defended his comments, but on Tuesday morning he walked them back, apologising to Herron and anyone who had been offended. The controversial Opera House projection is due to take place at 8pm on Tuesday, when the barrier draw for The Everest will be projected on the Opera House sails. Nearly 3000 people are also expected to attend a protest at that time to disrupt the Everest projection with torches and mobile phone lights. On his Tuesday morning show, Jones said the protest should not go ahead.

"[Racing NSW chief executive] Peter V'landys and Racing NSW are law-abiding outfits and they're marketing Sydney and Australia to the world," he said. "But this latte-sipping mob want to conduct a counter-projection." Little did Alan Jones know that a counter-projection had already taken place. The Chaser projected an 'advertise here' sign on the Opera House on Monday night, with Alan Jones' mobile number. The ABC's Chaser team tweeted a video early on Tuesday morning, showing them driving around the city projecting onto buildings including the Art Gallery of NSW and Parliament House on Macquarie Street.

The projection said: "Advertise here. Call Alan." The projection included a mobile phone number, which was "apparently his [Jones'] real mobile number", Chaser member Charles Firth says in the video. Firth then drove up the Opera House, and attempted to talk his way past a security guard stationed at the entrance. "Alan called your boss, the head of the Opera House. Gave her a big talking to," Firth said to the security guard. The security officer then asked him to leave, to which he responded: "You're allowed to project onto there, that's the biggest billboard in Sydney mate." Before driving away the Chaser team did manage to project their sign onto the Opera House sails.

Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Later on his Tuesday morning, show, Jones said “the Alan Jones haters have marshalled themselves”. "It’s just impossible; there are anonymous phone calls on my phone every minute," he said. Jones' comments come as a petition calling on the NSW government to reverse its decision on the projection nears a quarter of a million signatures. Petition organiser and Sydney father Mike Woodcock hopes Premier Gladys Berejiklian will accept the petition he started on Friday, after the coalition overturned a decision by Opera House management to reject the plan following a vigorous campaign by Jones.

Public outrage over the about-face in favour of the $13 million Racing NSW event mounted over the weekend and into this week with some calling it an "assault" on the World Heritage-listed Australian building. Loading Mr Woodcock, whose petition on Tuesday morning had topped 237,000 signatures at the time of publication, said it would be "awesome" if Ms Berejiklian reversed her decision made in the wake of a phone call from Jones. Mr Woodcock's Change.org petition, which the website says is its "fastest growing petition" in recent memory, will be delivered to the NSW Parliament on Tuesday morning. Protest organiser Rachel Evans says there's "a lot of anger" about the promotion which she's described as an "assault on the Opera House".