THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - WILL THE NEW RACING MINISTER DARE TO BE DIFFERENT?

By Graham Potter | Sunday, March 15, 2015

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.

Three months and $3 million ... that’s what we have been told it will take for an independent review to come up with some much needed answers as to how the abhorrent practise of live-baiting in the greyhound racing industry went undetected for so long.

I’m dubious about that timeframe and I’m curious as to how such a definitive cost allocation can be bandied around even before the terms of reference of the review have been confirmed.

For the sake of argument, let’s accept that $3 million as a ball-park figure which authorities have come up with as being necessary to spend to get the job done properly.

But, even so, we need to know more about the $3 million!

How will it be spent exactly? If authorities know the figure they must know the rough breakdown of costs allocated and, in order to ensure that the industry is being well served by the process, those details need to be made available to stakeholders.

Would it be unusual ... or even extraordinary ... for that to happen?

Of course it would be but racing’s stakeholders have been played as fools once too often with regard to racing inquiries and this latest, and any future reviews, need to be transparent from day one, hence the cost breakdown figure requirement.

Then there is a second, essential part to the ‘successful review’ equation which has also never been addressed before.

When there are outgoing costs, someone is receiving income revenue at the expense of racing.

If their services are worth it, all well and good (although we could only know that if the costing figures are divulged) but ... and this is the over-riding point ... even if all of those appointed to play a part in conducting the review are Australia’s finest, most competent professionals, their work is of ZERO value if their ultimate recommendations are not acted upon ... as, for the large part, was the case in the last thoroughbred racing commission of inquiry.

Racing Minister Bill Byrne has established the current independent review. Good on him for doing that, but really anybody in his position could have runner-stamped that decision.

It would make a huge difference to the credibility of the racing minister’s office and establish Byrne’s reputation as being his own man if he were to give an undertaking BEFORE the review opens the doors on its investigation, that he will validate, within reason, the findings of the independent review by taking swift, strong action on the review’s recommendations.

That will be breaking new ground and provide a positive contrast to the ‘inaction’ following the last thoroughbred racing inquiry which ended up being a costly, and in some terms, embarrassing non-event.

So, to be clear, racing stakeholders no longer want to hear about the millions being spent on a review without knowing how that figure came about ... and they find reviews of the type now being undertaken to be a useless waste of time and money if racing itself derives no direct benefit through ‘actionable outcome’.

But having said that, Racing Minister Bill Byrne has been handed an opportunity.

Now we just have to wait and see if he dares to be different!

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