Page 2311 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2022
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The amount of taxpayer money that we give to the horseracing industry is around the same as the amount they give out in prize money, so to me it looks an awful lot like we are publicly funding prize money for horseracing, but it does not look like we are funding jobs. We will soon know how much ACT horseracing actually contributes. The MOU requires an independent economic impact report, and I will be really interested to see the results of this.
In any case public funding from government always makes jobs and always contributes to the economy. We could spend money on nurses, midwives, teachers and artists. That would make jobs, and it would deliver services to Canberra that Canberrans want and need. It would contribute to our economy, because everyone buys coffee, everyone buys groceries, everyone pays the rent, and everyone buys whatever supplies they need for their workplace and their livelihoods. The return on investment in the arts is actually one of the highest. For every million dollars in turnover that we spend on arts and entertainment, we produce nine jobs. If we want to make jobs, there are lots of ways to do it.
How much money is coming from ACT government to ACT horseracing is a really clear figure, and I am glad about that. It is $41.144 million across the five-year MOU that has just been signed. It is around $8 million each year. The Thoroughbred Park annual report shows that last year the Canberra Racing Club received $6.6 million of their total revenue of $13.2 million from the ACT government. They are half-funded by ACT government! What other private sector business is half-funded by ACT government?
What service do the people of Canberra get for this public service that they are paying for? Do they get health, education, housing or a safe and stable climate for their children? No. They get a horseracing industry with narrow appeal for some people which is clearly not a public service by any test that I can think of.
This funding is also out of step with sports funding. The Brumbies will get around $1.8 million this year, the Raiders around $2.6 million, and community sport and recreation grant recipients get up to $10,000 each. The Canberra horseracing industry gets four times as much as other professional sports and 800 times as much as community sports.
I want to pause here and reflect on all of the good things in this MOU, and there actually are some. I do not think it should have been signed, but it is a massive improvement on what we have seen in the past. Minister Steel has been open, transparent and diligent. He has acted with integrity throughout the negotiations and in the final MOU itself. I am sure he has had some very difficult conversations with the horseracing industry about this, and I know my colleague Mr Parton was joking about that. I actually think that is the job of a minister—to do a hard job and to do it well.
He has delivered a clear and enforceable MOU which is miles better than the previous two—not that I can see the previous two, because they are not public documents. This MOU is a public document. It is the first time that it has been public. It is on the website. You can read it; I have read it. I would encourage you to have a look at it. It has set clear KPIs for the industry.
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