THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - ACKNOWLEDGING RACING'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE COMMUNITY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, June 15, 2014

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily

The Government’s grant of $22 million to the Brisbane Racing Club to redevelop the Eagle Farm racetrack and precinct should be welcomed by not only racing stakeholders but also by the general public at large.

There are those amongst the latter group who continually lobby against racing as there are those who wouldn’t care one way or another whether racing survived or not.

But then their view is naïve.

It’s time these people realised that, in essence, a fair percentage of the lifestyle, facilities and the services that they enjoy are there directly because of the revenue, through taxation, that the government accrues from the horse racing industry.

Without this source of income, the amount of Government funding for essential services would be greatly diminished … so as much as the lobbyists try to degrade racing or the neutrals try to minimise its importance, the fact they have to acknowledge, if they don’t want to be labelled as hypocrites, is that everybody benefits from a healthy horse racing industry.

Racing at Eagle Farm provides the high-point of betting turnover on racing in the state and as such the investment in bringing the track’s racing surface back up to an appropriate standard is not only a no-brainer but is, as has been well documented, long overdue.

The $22 million is a strategic spend by the government and is one where they will actually get a positive return on their investment and that return will ultimately benefit everybody in the community.

Those are the facts … as hard as it might be for some to accept.

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The popular past-time of politicising every governmental decision made with regard to racing serves little purpose.

One side of the floor can never find any value in the other side’s decision-making process and the real issue can often get lost in the dust-storm that argument creates.

While I understand it is the way that life that has evolved, that doesn’t make it any less outrageous that the make-up of the board of Queensland Racing at any given moment is directly attributable to the government of the time (who appoint them) and subject to almost immediate change when there is a change of government.

The underlying negative impact that impasse has on racing is huge, not least when racing stakeholders with different political agendas adopt a stubborn stance based, seemingly not on any need to protect or foster racing’s well-being, but rather on their own particular party line.

This inevitable political standoff only adds to the fragmentation within the industry and therefore is clearly detrimental to racing’s cause.

Whatever happened to selecting the best people for the board positions and then letting them get on with the job whatever their political persuasion?

Ok, now I’m the one being naïve, but surely such an obvious flaw is one that needs to be addressed.

I suggest this correction … the move towards racing’s independence and freedom from political manoeuvring … has to be made if the future course that is to be navigated by racing is to be a prosperous one.

It might be a long shot to implement, but the effort and the rewards surely will be well worth it!

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