THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - A MASSIVE DECISION WITH THE MOST SERIOUS OF CONSEQUENCES

By Graham Potter | Sunday, July 10, 2016

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 news of the closure … read banning … of greyhound racing in New South Wales from July 1, 2017 came as a shock to most in the racing industry.

It should not have done!

The findings of the New South Wales’s Special Commission of Inquiry put the greyhound industry in the state in an indefensible position. The details ranged from sordid to the possibly criminal to unpalatable to the unacceptable … and much more … and that description is being kind.

It no longer mattered that there were good people in the game who did the right thing. Other activities had destroyed the sport to the point where it was assessed to have become too badly broken to fix … its image, its integrity smashed and shattered into too many pieces to put together again.

The recommendation from Commissioner Michael McHugh was that Parliament should consider shutting down the industry.

State Premier Mike Baird did not blink.

He acted swiftly and banned all greyhound racing in New South Wales from July 1, 2017.

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Unlike Queensland, the New South Wales racing model has a complete separation of racing codes … which means that, thankfully, the sins of one code cannot be visited on the other racing codes.

That is the way it should be.

If nothing else, the New South Wales decision underlines the need for Queensland to abolish their current All Code system and revert to a structure where each separate code of racing is independent from each other and individually responsible for its own well-being … and, therefore by implication, the consequences of any actions they undertake.

This call has been made and ignored many times before but most people involved in the industry still see it as a ‘no brainer.’

It is just a pity that they aren’t the ones making the vital decisions on this matter.

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Animal activists, who celebrated the banning of greyhound racing in New South Wales, generally do not have a good name in horseracing.

This is not for any sinister reason.

The majority of people involved in the horseracing industry are animal lovers and they can appreciate the good work activists do on many fronts but, because of these participants’ hands on involvement in the game, they can also identify the blatant, unfair, malicious damaging misrepresentation that is so often put out as anti-racing propaganda in order to try and discredit the industry.

It would be really good if racing and authenticated, responsible animal welfare groups could work together.

There is no ‘but’ at the end of that sentence. That is the sincere hope!

Just as racing has been called upon to identify and clear out its bad eggs though, so it is that those outside of racing who genuinely want to work towards a better welfare deal for racehorses should address the provocative utterings coming from those who so often masquerade as informed activists … and put an end to that unbecoming behaviour.

In my view that is just getting in the way of a possible respectful working arrangement.

Both sides have to come to the party for any such arrangement to fall into place.

But both also need to be warned, it is a party at which there is no room for clowns.