Wednesday, 16 October 2024
Motions
Greyhound racing
Motions
Greyhound racing
Debate resumed.
Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (14:02): I rise to speak on the motion put forward by the Animal Justice Party member Georgie Purcell, and do want to note that the Cranbourne area, a part of which I represent in the south-east, has had a lot of greyhound racing and a lot of greyhound racers. In fact there are a number of them that have made their income and that has been their livelihood for a long time. Many of them have absolutely loved their dogs and been very, very proud of their achievements. But of course in Cranbourne we found that the track was in dire need of redevelopment and the project costs came in at $14 million, so I am not sure where some of the others are getting their figures from. But yes, it is true that there have been a number of animals that have unfortunately passed away – died – and that the racecourse was closed in 2022.
I must say on behalf of Greyhound Racing Victoria that they have very strict rules on how they look after their animals and what they look for. I want to recognise these rules that they have put in place, the five freedoms. That is: freedom from hunger and thirst for the animals, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from fear and distress. They have looked at that as one, the other being five domains – that is: optimal nutrition, an enriching environment that meets physical and mental needs, good health, normal expression of behaviour and a good mental state. Both of these models recognise that animals are sentient beings who can experience a wide range of emotions just like humans, and they consider emotion as equally as important as the physical state.
I want to also acknowledge that Greyhound Racing Victoria has gone to great lengths to make sure that the code of practice for keeping racing greyhounds in place has been strictly adhered to. They have a number of things that they monitor. They are very open to learning and to improving. It just bothers me tremendously that Animal Justice thinks that anything to do with animals needs to be shut down, any form of racing should be stopped. We have pony clubs that have racing in my region, and they should be allowed to have pony clubs for children.
Greyhound racing has been around for a long time. As long as there are good parameters in place, and Greyhound Racing Victoria is working so hard to make sure that there are, then I think that it is unfair to expect unreasonable changes and that these things need to continue to be negotiated with Greyhound Racing Victoria. I want to applaud them on their efforts to work constructively to make very good changes.
I want to give my colleague Mrs McArthur some time to be able to speak on this down the track, so I will be stopping at this point, but I do want to say that we are not happy with what the Animal Justice Party has put together and we will be standing up against this because of that.
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (14:05): I rise in support of the greyhound industry – no surprise there. Let us be clear about this: this is a motion cloaked in care but shrouded in deception. This is not about the transparency and openness of the greyhound racing industry, this is a motion to, in the end, end the greyhound racing industry. It is quite clear on the Animal Justice Party website that they want to end all racing. Whether it is greyhound racing, flat racing, jumps racing or equestrian racing – even pony clubs have races – it will all end under the AJP. This is just the short edge of the wedge. This is the beginning of the end to racing in Victoria. It is not good enough. It is absolutely not good enough.
In my region of Western Victoria there are four racing tracks – at Geelong, Ballarat, Horsham and Warrnambool. Let us go to some statistics. The greyhound racing industry in Victoria generates more than $643 million of value to the economy and supports, wait for it – you are all keen on jobs – 17,150 jobs and participants. The greyhound racing industry generates nearly $428 million in expenditure in Victoria, 65 per cent in regional areas. We are crying out for investment in regional Victoria. This is going to kill some investment off. It supports over 3013 individuals via direct employment in the Victorian racing industry, while another 3687 people are employed in supporting industries. It engages over 10,450 people who participate in the racing industry either as a trainer, a breeder, a volunteer or an owner. It is a major supporter of regional Victoria, with more than half of the value added occurring in regional areas of the state.
In Horsham, for example, a fine town in my electorate, greyhound racing contributes $3.5 million to the town and the Wimmera area. The Horsham Greyhound Racing Club directly employs 15 people, and it is the local track of around 30 trainers. In total the industry provides around 160 full-time equivalent jobs in Horsham and the surrounding area. Now, what is not to love about that?
Let us go to Geelong. The figure is around a hundred. No, sorry, a thousand – I cannot read my own writing – with 600 directly employed and 250 registered local trainers in the area. That is a large number of people working in an industry. The greyhound club itself sponsors other local sporting clubs, and they use the club’s facilities. They pride themselves on being supportive of the community. With a recent $200,000 renovation, the club ensured local companies did the work; local businesses worked on this project. Greyhound racing contributes $30.5 million to the Geelong local economy. I have been to that Geelong racing club, and it is spotlessly clean with immaculate facilities for the dogs, the trainers and all the staff. What a wonderful family outing it is.
I will tell you the other people who are absolutely so pleased to be there: it was all the unions. They sponsored all the races in the Geelong cup. Let me tell you, for example, the CFMEU, the Electrical Trades Union Victoria, the AMWU Victoria and the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union Victoria – those unions were the major sponsors of the Geelong cup race meeting. And what a wonderful job they did, those fine union members, those wonderful workers of the union movement that I know Acting President Berger supports continually in this place.
How can Labor be supporting this motion? You are supposed to be the party of the people. Like duck hunting, I do not think you will be able to end greyhound racing, Ms Purcell, just for the record, because the union movement managed to stifle the move to end duck hunting in this state and I think the same thing will happen with greyhound racing. I feel sorry for Minister Carbines. I know he supports the greyhound racing industry. He has been rolled. I do not know what you people in the upper house are doing. The poor minister is beside himself.
We would all not deny that accidents happen, and of course no one thinks of them as anything other than unfortunate, even tragic. But do you know what? Where is the motion on the attacks on the police horses that were so viciously attacked in various protests here? I was on the steps of Parliament House recently and I watched the Palestinian trans activist protesters being totally unkind to the police horses, and I know they were doing that in another protest. I am looking forward to the AJP motion that is condemning cruelty to the police horses in protests. That is what we need. We also need to look forward to the AJP motion that is condemning the cruelty that occurs in private ownership of puppies, the breeding of illegal puppies and pussycats in backyards and selling them on the internet and collecting them in a McDonald’s car park – a totally terrible situation. I do not know what the RSPCA do these days. They are just activists. They do not actually care about animals much. But we need you to get on the bandwagon of all cruelty to animals, and particularly not these industries that actually work very hard to make sure their animals, whether they are greyhounds or racehorses or trotters or equestrian horses, are given the best of care.
I know you are a horse lover, Ms Purcell. I know you are, and you were a horserider of some note in the past. That is fantastic. Sorry, I am a bit old to get back on the horse these days, but we could have done that in an earlier life. But we are not supporting this motion, sorry to say. I know how passionate you are about it, Ms Purcell. But really, this is about killing off an industry, and we absolutely cannot have that happening, especially as it affects regional and rural Victoria. It is critical that we keep these industries going. And look, it is not only people’s livelihoods, but it is their entertainment, their free time. When I was at the racetrack at Geelong, there were families there, there were things for the children to do. It was one happy family outing. We are worried about family violence, and it is terrible, and it is a great thing that they can all go out together and enjoy an outing in their local community that does a wonderful job for generating jobs and income and the economy, and it is important that we keep it going.
There are always going to be a few bad apples in any industry, and the regulations are such that these people get caught out, quite rightly so, and we are all for that. But thousands of Victorians are passionate about this sport, and I think it is offensive to presume that just because of this they want anything other than the best welfare for the greyhounds.
I have not been a Greyhound Adoption Program owner. I could be in the future. I have just lost my pet whippet. He was sort of a greyhound, you know. And I know Georgie has had a very unfortunate experience with her wonderful dog. What was his name?
Bev McARTHUR: Frankie. Frankie is gone. We are all very sad about that. But look, GAP is fantastic, and I urge everybody to get on board, get a rehomed greyhound. That would be fantastic, and that would help out the show tremendously.
Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (14:15): That is a very hard act to follow. I thank members for their interest and comments in this debate today, particularly those who actually took it seriously and did not conflate it with something to do with goats and nappies and the assumption that every animal activist in the state simply must be an Animal Justice Party member. But what is abundantly clear from this debate is that the majority of members in this place support measures for greater transparency in the greyhound racing industry, and that is what is at the heart of this debate. It is in fact the very least we can do when this state and this government insist on racing them to their deaths.
Since the opposition have made it clear they are not supporting this motion today, I just want to pick up on some of their comments which are blatantly untrue and go to the point of why this motion is necessary. Mrs Hermans referenced the code of practice, which is actually voluntary – they do not have to follow that code of practice. If she was here for my speech, she would have heard me speak about the fact that greyhounds are not even included in our animal welfare laws – they are exempt. They are exempt because what is done to them would be illegal if they were included in those laws. Mr Mulholland spoke about the Evan Mulholland cup, which I actually was not aware of, and I only hope for his sake that it does not kill a greyhound. Although we know from the current figures, and hopefully the more transparent figures if this motion passes today, the chances of that are happening in his name are absurdly high.
It is also concerning to hear other members speak about Greyhound Racing Victoria’s (GRV) so-called prosecuting. I hate to have to be the one to call this out, because I spoke about it at length, but prosecution is actually done by the Victorian Racing Tribunal as well, who are meant to be an independent body. That is the same tribunal I literally read quotes from giving trainers a pass for drugging in my own speech, so it is interesting to hear so many speak on them as being one and the same.
Ms Bath took it upon herself to do what she called some ‘myth busting’. My office looked at her sources, and now I would like to do some myth busting of my own. Ms Bath said that my prohibited substances figures were false, which is interesting since they were actually taken from the GRV’s own report. But she did raise a really good point in saying that. My number of 103 positive swab results is correct, but Ms Bath quoted 64, which is actually the number the GRV bothered to prosecute. So Ms Bath is really highlighting that GRV’s reporting is not clear and transparent if she so easily misunderstood this. I thank her for that clarification, and it literally proves why these changes are so necessary. I personally would love to know what happened to the other 39 positive swabs for that year, and hopefully with these changes I am proposing we soon will.
The actual motion and what it does seem to be lost on many opposition members. It is not ending the industry, although, Mrs McArthur, I have made it abundantly clear that that is what I would do if I had the decision. But that is not going to happen today. That is not what this motion is proposing. In fact if opposition members want the greyhound racing industry to thrive in this state, they need to support measures that will maintain their social licence, which is rapidly deteriorating every single day. This motion is simply about transparency and simply about reporting, and these numbers already exist; I have said that. It is just that volunteers are doing the work that industry should be doing. As I said before, if members love and support this industry, then they should not fear the GRV giving us more data. In fact I would have thought that members would welcome this so that they could use the correct statistics in their speeches.
The motion seeks above all else to reveal the true experience of greyhounds in the state. So once again I thank members for their contributions, particularly Ms Copsey and Ms Payne, and Mr Galea for his lovely acknowledgement of Frankie Gamble, our beautiful office greyhound, who we so dearly miss and who this motion is dedicated to. I commend it to the house, and I am hopeful for its passing.
Council divided on motion:
Ayes (23): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Katherine Copsey, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, David Ettershank, Michael Galea, Shaun Leane, David Limbrick, Sarah Mansfield, Rachel Payne, Aiv Puglielli, Georgie Purcell, Samantha Ratnam, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, Sheena Watt
Noes (14): Melina Bath, Jeff Bourman, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Moira Deeming, Renee Heath, Ann-Marie Hermans, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Evan Mulholland, Richard Welch
Motion agreed to.