MY CALL: BAND AID REMEDY DOES NOT ADDRESS THE REAL PROBLEM OF THE FLAWED JUSTICE SYSTEM

By David Fowler | Wednesday, April 17, 2019

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

The latest solution to take the heat out of the Ben Currie situation is simply a “band aid” remedy.

And not necessarily an ethical one.

The volume of charges and weight of public opinion (for and against) confronting Currie and Queensland’s manifestly inadequate racing justice model collided sometime ago.

In a perfect world they should be mutually exclusive events to make comment on.

In other words, you should be able to have an opinion either way regarding Currie or the QRIC /QCAT justice model and keep them as separate issues.

Mistakenly, many have bundled this toxic mix together and drawn a conclusion.

For as long as I can remember, I have been cynical of how justice is delivered to Queensland racing participants since QRIC’s beginnings in 2016.

The QRIC internal review is lacking in diversity of opinion (one reviewer) and, sadly, transparency.

QCAT is the wrong forum to be adjudicating racing matters and is too slow in its’ delivery of justice.

Ben Currie can’t be held to account for the inadequacies of QCAT.

But Ben Currie must be held accountable for his own actions as a licenced trainer and has long protested his innocence on the raft of charges levelled against him.

Currie and his legal team are simply using the avenues available to them.

You can think Currie is as guilty as hell or as pure as the driven snow but the protracted length of this matter is not his responsibility.

The consideration to ban his nominations smacks of a knee-jerk reaction.

It may have held up better had it been enacted sometime ago.

I can report that it was but was put aside.

It’s understandable that many think Currie is getting a “free run” .

But making policy on the run such as banning his nominations is not the right way to go.

Ben Currie has exploited a shoddy justice model to prove his innocence.

Whatever the outcome, justice will be served.

Impatience and opinion should play no part in it.

More articles