INDUSTRIAL ACTION: IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

By Graham Potter | Friday, October 19, 2018

THIS IS A MASSIVE STORY!

The Racing Industry Participants Association, comprising the Australian Trainers Association (QLD), Queensland Jockeys Association, Queensland Thoroughbred Breeders Association and the Queensland Race-Horse Owners Association has confirmed that industrial action will take place on Cox Plate day and Melbourne Cup day with all participants standing down on those days.

This means that no TAB meetings will be held in Queensland on Melbourne Cup day.

This radical action comes as a direct response to the State government’s continued apathy towards providing the most basic needs of one of the largest industries.

The spark this time around was the racing Point Of Consumption Tax distribution allocation by government which essentially snubbed the horse racing industry even though it is the biggest contributor to that tax … but, in truth, that really was just the snapping of the last straw.

Mediocre performance by government (I’m just being polite) with regard to its racing activities, or lack thereof, goes back a long way. Poor decision making in a variety of areas, a lack of understanding, delays, their part in the Eagle Farm debacle … there is all of that … but arguably the most damning aspect, in racing’s eyes, has been the Government’s continuing inability to come to terms with reality in spite of it staring them in their face.

You won’t be able to convince any racing person that government, through a case of severe and apparently untreatable ignorance, have long since turned their backs on the well-being of the many thousands of people who rely on the industry for their livelihood … and, in fact, on the many community organisations and other outlets who prosper on the back of racing, after the fact, via the racing taxes garnered by government.

And let’s not play party politics here. I talk about government in general because one side is as bad as the other.

That is how we got to the current situation.

Two weeks ago, racing threatened industrial action but then stepped back for a week and held the door open for government to come up with a reasonable solution.

When that option was not forthcoming it was always going to be a case of who blinked first.

Racing didn’t blink. It couldn’t. Once you say you are going to play hard ball you have to follow through or lose all credibility.

What happens next is anybody’s guess.

Will government react? What happens if we have the two days of industrial action and there is still no resolution?

Already, there is a myriad of sub plots out there and more will develop in the coming days along with a large number of questions that will need answers.

Like I said, this is a massive story.

It is only going to get bigger!

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View related HRO articles:

Is the Queensland Government ever going to come to the party? (July 21)

When you draw a line in the sand, say enough is enough and start to push back against the tide (October 4)

Queensland government gives racing the cold shoulder (October 5)

Horseracing stakeholders are left in limbo (October 9)

A seemingly immovable object against a fast rising tide. What will happen next? (October 9)

Horseracing stakeholders are left in limbo (October 12)

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