Page 1045 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 17 March 2010
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For those that have not been to Thoroughbred Park recently, there have been significant investments in the facilities both by the club and by individuals. And it seems quite amazing to me that the government, who underwrote the redevelopment of the track, would now say, “Let us use that track on fewer occasions each year.”
I recently received an email that highlighted the benefits that would flow from these investments. This email referred to the transformation of the Canberra racetrack through a new multimillion dollar redevelopment. The Canberra racetrack at the ACT Racing Club is one of the best regional tracks in Australia, with its two racing surfaces and modern training facilities. These people who sent the email wanted to be part of this important, growing industry. They have made an investment of close to $1 million in a new stabling facility. This investment has been a vote of confidence in what our racing industry was seeking to offer. Any lessening of this investment and any loss of quality of our racing facility will jeopardise investments such as these.
There are also associated issues concerning prize money. Racing organisations need to increase their prize money to ensure that they retain their ranking against other racing venues and events. A failure to maintain or increase prize money to the necessary thresholds will mean that race meetings in Canberra will lose prestige, nominations and, hence, revenue. As well, these reductions will ultimately result in the ACT’s venue losing critical slots in television broadcasts, with again a further loss of prestige and revenue in a never-ending spiral. It would be an inevitable spiral to mediocrity and a loss of resources and critical mass in the ACT’s racing industry, increasing competition from other regional race venues across Australia and from elsewhere in Australia.
I have received advice from the racing industry that, for instance, the New South Wales racing industry is building up a war chest of funds—I heard the figure of $60 million quoted—as a direct result of the levy on corporate bookmakers. Ultimately, it is likely that there will be a massive amount of funds that will be released to the New South Wales industry that will allow it to significantly boost prize money, prize money for metropolitan and country race meetings, and the ACT will bear the brunt of this increased competition simply because the minister is not making the funds available to the local racing industry to allow them to compete.
At the same time, funding based on turnover through TABs has been declining as new betting options emerge. Racing venues have been self-funding but this has come under increasing pressure from these two trends. The move by the ACT government to revise the funding formula is, in principle, a sound move. The issue, though, for the ACT racing industry is that the ACT government has taken this opportunity to effect a reduction in funding for the local racing industry, principally by using as a base the 2008-09 year to determine funding levels rather than using the 2005-06 year, which was a more typical funding year for the local racing industry.
It is a disappointing approach from the Stanhope-Gallagher government and from this minister. And it simply represents a grab for funds from an industry which has been self-funding and which would have had an increased capacity to respond to competitive pressures that are being faced by this industry.
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