Page 133 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
We know with 100 per cent certainty that the deplorable practice of live baiting has never occurred in the ACT and never, ever will occur, because everything involving the mechanical lure is filmed. If every other greyhound jurisdiction conducted themselves in the way that the ACT operation does, we would not have seen the problems that nearly led to the banning of greyhounds in New South Wales.
The report from the inquiry into Greyhound Racing New South Wales released earlier this year is massive. It is hundreds and hundreds of pages. It makes virtually no mention of the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club. Was this because the club here at Symonston fell outside the inquiry’s terms of reference? No, not at all. It is quite simply because there is no story to tell in the ACT. There is no evidence. At this stage I must pay tribute to the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club chief veterinary surgeon, Dr Tim Mather, who has been primarily responsible for implementing many of the measures that have seen our greyhound racing club lead the field by many lengths in the animal welfare race.
We are going to reward them by cutting them off at the knees. The Canberra model is a beacon. It is a bright, shining ray of light representing a 21st century greyhound operation. If this was truly about animal welfare, Symonston would be the very last track in the country that you would close. The threat to cut funding to greyhound racing is not about animal welfare. It has got nothing to do with it.
If funding through the MOU is not continued, I can tell you that by hook or by crook the local club will probably still find a way to continue racing but they would be forced to do so on a reduced basis. With such a savage cut in funding, it is highly likely that the level of veterinary support would be compromised. So cutting the funding to the ACT greyhound racing industry is about animal welfare because, in effect, this Labor-Greens alliance would be creating animal welfare problems by knowingly cutting back the veterinary support that that sport needs to be safely run. Ultimately, when the track at Symonston needs improvements in the future, under the Labor-Greens funding model it is quite likely that those improvements could not be done, which would put a question mark over safety and welfare for those much-loved greyhounds.
The only animal welfare issues in this whole argument are being created by this Labor-Greens alliance because of this ideological pursuit of this legitimate sport with a hundred per cent record on the animal welfare front. I think they would probably battle on without the funding.
Option 2—and I was having discussions with some people in Queanbeyan about this, by the by, in the last couple of days; I spoke to some people who are quite high up over the border and who believe that if somehow push came to shove and the greyhound industry here decided it was all too hard and folded—is that they would probably just build another greyhound track in Queanbeyan. That is five, seven kilometres from Symonston. What would we have achieved? What would the point have been if they are just running around six or seven kilometres over the road and New South Wales, Queanbeyan, is getting all the economic benefit from it? What would we have achieved?
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video