THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - 28 MILLION REASONS TO REVAMP QLD'S FAILED RACING MODEL

By Graham Potter | Sunday, July 19, 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.

The critical state of affairs at Racing Queensland was confirmed by the Racing Minister at a press conference on Thursday.

Racing Minister Bill Byrne also clearly stated he doesn’t to look back. He prefers to put all of his energy into moving racing forward by finding a way “to secure an optimistic and bright future for the industry.

You have got to give Byrne credit for not showboating about the flaws and failings that have been exposed in the operational methods and culture that existed at Racing Queensland under the previous government’s watch and his focus to lay bare the problem and seek a solution.

Truth to tell though, I’m not quite sure which option is more disturbing ... looking back or looking forward.

Certainly there is no future looking back but, boy oh boy, Racing Queensland’s $12 million loss in the 2014/15 year and a projected loss, if nothing is changed in 2015/16 year, of $28 million (as stated by Racing Queensland Acting CEO Ian Hall at Thursday’s Racing Minister’s press conference) is a slap in the face for all of those hard working battlers out there who fight every day to keep their racing existence alive.

With those figures in play Byrne’s reference that, ‘A cautious approach to business management seems to have been missing, at some level, with some decisions being made that were, from a financial perspective, overly optimistic or naïve,’ could well be an understatement.

Byrne also mentioned a past ‘over-optimistic sense of revenue streams’ as well as ‘notions of rivers of gold’ resulting in ‘commitments made in the past that are simply not substantiated by cash flow.’

So it is scary looking back ... and that is even without getting involved in the details of the four matters presently before the CCC, as confirmed by Byrne who said, “We discovered cultural and management system problems and an indicator of that is fact four individuals have been referred to the CCC.”

Byrne’s did have to reference the past though and those references were designed to lead racing stakeholders to a full understanding of the present critical financial situation so that they can then all work together on finding a positive path forward from a new, realistic starting point.

I guess the only reason it is not as scary looking forward is that racing stakeholders can work to shape the future whereas they cannot change the past.

But will they?

Most racing enthusiasts will cringe at the government’s proposed first step towards finding a solution to racing’s woes ... namely a consultation process between government and stakeholders.

Many stakeholders have seen this option touted before. Many have found it ‘consultation’ in name only and have grown wary of the value of such a process.

Time will tell if this latest offer of interaction and communication serves a purpose but my feeling is that this is an opportunity that should not be passed over.

By that I mean, if stakeholders adopt Byrne’s philosophy of not looking back and getting caught up in the arguments and counter arguments over past outcomes, but instead come to the table with an open mind and a willingness to contribute to the betterment of racing ...they might just surprise ourselves.

You want another reason why that should happen.

What more have stakeholders got to lose?

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