Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Mr CARBINES:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (12:40): It is a pleasure to rise and make some comments on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. In opening my speech I must say that racing is a great part of our state’s and our nation’s heritage. I note up-front that this bill is largely an industry-driven amendment bill that seeks to make those attending our race meetings more accountable and more responsible for their behaviours, and that is the reason why we will be supporting this legislation. But one must ask: here we are on the verge of spring with a number of major race meetings to be held over the carnival not only in the metropolitan area but across the length and breadth of Victoria, and yet we have this bill, which was introduced a number of weeks ago, not being brought on in the Assembly until the last day of sitting, with no hope of this bill going to the upper house and no hope of this bill receiving royal assent.

When we read the second-reading speech there is commentary from the Minister for Racing about how these are important reforms and how we need to get these processes in place. One could argue why, on the verge of the most important couple of months in our racing calendar, we have left this with no hope of it being able to pass through the Parliament when it has support from this side of the chamber—quite staggering. I know we have a new minister, and I think probably by his own admission one with relatively limited knowledge of the racing industry and on a steep learning curve, but I am not sure that he has twigged that spring is a big racing time here in this state. We should have got this bill introduced and brought on for debate far, far earlier than we did.

I also want to make a few other comments. Whilst we are supporting this bill, because the content of it is common sense, I will be very interested to see if our friends from the Greens party are prepared to come in and make a comment on the racing bill, because we know how anti-racing they are. But this bill is about behaviours on the racecourse and preventing situations where spectators interact, largely inappropriately, with the horses. This is a safety issue. We know the Greens hate racing, but I hope that they would see the common sense in this being a safety matter and that this bill addresses certain safety elements relating to the racing industry. I will be very, very keen to see what their approach is, whether they are going to have a commonsense approach or they are going to go on with their usual silliness about opposing everything to do with racing.

Racing does have a very, very long and proud history in this state, and anybody who is involved in the industry or has anything to do with it would know that. We have world-class racing and training facilities. It is an industry that employs many, many thousands of Victorians across the length and breadth of the state. The latest figures—and they go back a couple of years—are that the racing industry is worth $4.3 billion to the Victorian economy, with over 33 000 full-time equivalent jobs and over 120 000 people directly involved in the industry. Obviously there are a lot of part-time workers when you are looking at stablehands, track riders and the like. It is a massive, massive industry here in Victoria.

I think it was only the week before last that I spent a day with my good friend the retiring member for Euroa and the new candidate, Annabelle, up there visiting horse studs in the area. It is an element of the racing industry that a lot of people do not get or understand. Euroa is the heartland of our breeding industry here in Victoria. We visited three studs on that day, which at this time of the year are 24/7 operations with not only the servicing of mares but the foaling down of all the mares from last year. We visited the Yulong stud, we visited the Godolphin stud and we visited the Swettenham Stud as well as visiting the Avenel Equine Hospital. That is just a very, very small snapshot and insight into what a massive industry this is. Each of those studs at this time of the year is a hive of activity, with people running around and undertaking this very important work in what is a multimillion-dollar contributor to the local economy in Euroa. Again, I repeat: that was just a small snapshot, but our breeding industry in Victoria has come ahead in leaps and bounds in the last decade, to the stage where we are now rivalling New South Wales, which for a long time was known as the breeding mecca of Australian racing.

When you take all these things into consideration, it just astounds me that some elected representatives who sit in this chamber and some who sit in the chamber on the other side of Queen’s Hall are opposed to this great industry. I am obviously talking about the Greens and the Animal Justice Party, who openly say that they want to end racing. But when you have a think about some of the Greens policies, it is probably just in line with them wanting to ban most things that people enjoy—pastimes we enjoy and activities we enjoy, particularly rural people. The industry is and should be recognised as being a key economic driver in this state because that is very much what it is. It is not just about the Spring Racing Carnival. We see racing on at Caulfield at the moment. That will then go to Flemington and then on to Sandown for the end of the carnival. Right throughout that period we have a huge amount of significant country race meetings—a lot of country cups and other feature events—that are so, so important to the economies of those local towns. If you have a look at our picnic circuit, the annual picnic race meetings that go on in my electorate up at Canni Creek, which is just out of Buchan, they get a massive crowd there every year, and those funds go toward supporting the bush nursing centre in that area and they go to supporting the primary school. They are really a strong part of those communities and their culture.

The member for South-West Coast has just come into the chamber, and she would have a great understanding—I am sure when she makes her contribution she will mention this—of what the Warrnambool racing carnival does for that township, that area and that economy down there. It is absolutely massive. But still we have people who want to come in here as elected representatives and try and get rid of this magnificent and fantastic industry. The races are part of our fabric, they are part of our make-up, and we need to support racing because it is such an important industry. We on this side of the house support not only this bill but obviously the industry—well, most of us on this side of the house; there are a couple of Greens who sit up there who do not support it. But the majority of us do, and we need to recognise the great, great benefits that it brings to our state.

I want to get on to some of the elements of this bill and the provisions included in it. The first of those is to prohibit unauthorised access to certain areas of racecourses during race meetings and official trials. The trials are now big events where a lot of horses are schooled so that they can be presented to race effectively on race day. I am advised that there are no changes to the status quo of what exists now in legislation, but what the bill does is formalise those permissions that are included. It introduces new charges for all race meetings and official trial meetings as well and provides enforcement for these provisions.

A key point that I will make is that what is included in this bill is currently covered in the Major Events Act 2009, which currently manages crowd provisions at eight race meetings in Victoria. When that was introduced originally into the Major Events Act these rules, if you like, were put in place for the major meetings of the spring carnival. We are now at a stage where racing is much bigger than those eight major meetings. We have more major meetings on city tracks, but we also have an enormous amount, as I mentioned earlier, of very, very important meetings right across the length and breadth of the state, from Mildura in the north down to Warrnambool in the south-west, up to Bairnsdale in the east and everywhere in between. This bill seeks to include equivalent arrangements to the Major Events Act and to duplicate them so that it covers all of those meetings, and we certainly support this.

The main area of change in this legislation sets standards for behaviour at certain locations on a course. That could be adjacent to mounting yards and obviously near where the horses are running and competing on the track itself. It relates to throwing or kicking projectiles, causing projectiles to enter a restricted area and climbing on fences or barricades that are adjacent to a restricted racing area. It will be interesting to see—as I said earlier, these are very important safety measures, and it would be ludicrous for any member of this chamber or any party in this chamber to come in here and not support those increased safety elements that we want to put in place. Those sorts of behaviours when they occur—and unfortunately we do see idiots trying to invade racetrack areas; they have run onto the course proper when horses have been coming down the straight to try and make a point that they are anti-racing—are stupidity at its greatest level. They lead to obviously the horses acting in an unpredictable manner. They can lead to not only jockey injuries but impacts on crowds and crowd injuries as well. For the patrons that we see taking part in this stupidity there are generally two reasons: they are usually either drunk and doing something stupid or they have got some anti-racing banner strapped to them and they are trying to make some ridiculous point in relation to that.

One small area of concern that I believe the minister needs to address more specifically is where the second-reading speech states that these new laws are to be enforced by police and authorised officers. Given police do not have a regular presence at our non-major race meetings, if there are no police there, according to the second-reading speech, the enforcement will fall to these authorised officers. But if by ‘authorised officers’ hypothetically we are talking about PSOs, they will not be there either. This bill intends to make stewards authorised officers and, where required, some club personnel. While there will be instances where these authorised officers will be required, I certainly appreciate they are not common. I respect that. But I am not too sure that the stewards and racing club personnel on race days have that much spare time that when required they can act as authorised officers. These new authorised officers, we are told, will be identified pre race meeting and they will be trained. Perhaps some members from the government might want to cover off on this when they make their second-reading contributions. We need to have a situation where we are sure there are people with the time available who are not otherwise engaged in what is a busy job on race day—we need some people with flexibility in their time to be able to act when needed.

I do note that all the codes and various interest groups have been pushing for this outcome and these stronger and tougher rules, so it is largely an industry-driven bill. I hope we do not have to deal later this day with any pedantic, stupid amendments from the Greens. It will not get to the Animal Justice Party in the upper house. Hopefully common sense can prevail and this bill will pass. It is a bill that we should support because it does rule out those unruly and potentially dangerous behaviours.

I will conclude my speech by saying it is very disappointing that a bill that is going to afford more protections on racecourses, a bill that is going to result in punishments for inappropriate behaviours and therefore put people on notice that when they go onto racecourses they must behave appropriately. It is extraordinarily disappointing that it is being debated on the last sitting day of the 59th Parliament with no hope of it going through and being in place for this upcoming spring carnival. It was introduced, I think, three or four sitting weeks ago and not brought on, and now we are going to leave this in limbo, sitting on the table for someone to deal with in 2023. I find that extraordinarily disappointing on the eve of the spring carnival. With those comments, I will conclude my contribution.

Mr CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (12:54): It is with some pleasure that I rise this afternoon to make my contribution on the Racing Amendment (Unauthorised Access) Bill 2022. I must say, in reflecting on this bill I very much turn to a fair chunk of my working life where I had the privilege of working for trade unions advocating for the health and safety of the members in that particular industry. I know many on this side of the chamber have indeed spent a significant portion of their lives doing exactly the same thing. I very much come to this place with a view that every single worker in the state of Victoria, no matter the work they do, has a right to a safe workplace, whether they be someone who works in the construction sector, perhaps as a rigger, a carpenter, a concreter; whether they work as a career firefighter, with of course the dangers that exist in that work; indeed whether they work in a coupe harvesting timber for the construction sector and our paper mills; or indeed whether they work in the racing sector. Every single one of those workers, in my view, across the state of Victoria has a right to be able to go to work and perform the work that they do in a safe way, in a way that does not expose them to dangers. Largely the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 as we know it was an instrument of Labor in government, where Labor politicians strove to structure an act that provided those workers the opportunity to identify risks and to regulate safe systems of work so that they could perform their work and be able to return to their loved ones at the end of a shift, at the end of the work that they do each and every day, in a healthy way—a way in which their work did not endanger them.

Of course we know that some vocations, some occupations, do have inherent risks and do have inherent occupational safety challenges that are unique to their sector. Indeed when we look at the racing sector, we are dealing with animals. Those animals are obviously often travelling at very large speeds, and they do weigh a significant amount—a racehorse is somewhere in the vicinity of 400 to 500 kilograms, as identified. Inherently that does expose those that are working around those animals, who have been inevitably appropriately trained to be around those animals, to some inherent dangers. We need to make sure, I think appropriately, that those workers have the opportunity to conduct their work, their lawful work that they do, in as healthy and safe a way as possible. This act very much from my perspective will ensure that these workers will be able to continue to go about their work.

From my perspective I am not a regular racegoer. I cannot remember the last time I went to a race meeting. It would not have been in this term of Parliament. I think the Avoca racing carnival, which is a picnic-type race, I may have gone to about six or seven years ago. That is probably the last time I went near a racetrack. So I am not someone who enjoys these activities as part of my social life, but I do very much recognise that those workers deserve that right, that opportunity, to go about their work in a lawful way and in a way in which those inherent dangers are regulated, are recognised—

Sitting suspended 1.00 pm until 2.01 pm.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.