Page 5142 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 28 November 2017
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The law is the law. To get around that, you just do not pass bad laws. If you pass bad laws, the people will suffer the consequences.
Why are we doing this? God knows. The minister assures me that the people voted on this policy and that it has been a clear and consistent policy decision. That is not the case. On 16 June 2016, the then minister, Mr Gentleman, said that the government’s current position was to maintain support to the industry. He said:
Like other racing codes, greyhound racing contributes to the ACT economy in various ways, including through the employment of local people and generation of activity from infrastructure maintenance.
Well done, Mr Gentleman. On 7 July 2016, from New Zealand, the Chief Minister reneged on the minister’s support for the industry by declaring:
… there is no future for the industry in the ACT …
On 16 August Minister Fitzharris told ABC Radio that a ban remained government policy, while claiming to have been meeting with the racing industry. On 23 August in that year, Mick Gentleman told the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club that a ban is not government policy.
On 16 October Mr Rattenbury, on behalf of the Greens, submitted an ACT election policy which, on the assumption of the ban, provided funding for the temporary rehoming of racing greyhounds. Interestingly, this policy included the euthanasia of up to 20 per cent of industry greyhounds. The ACT Greens’ election policy was to euthanase up to 20 per cent of the greyhounds in the industry. Wow! On 30 October the ACT Greens and ACT Labor signed the parliamentary agreement which stated the end of ACT government funding and actively supported the end of the operation of the greyhound racing industry.
We are past the election and we are still not talking a ban. We are not talking a ban. On 14 February this year Minister Ramsay stated that the government’s policy was to “move to the end of the industry”. The very next day, on 15 February this year, the minister said in this place that it would remain legal for greyhound racing to continue in the ACT. That was on 15 February. Then, on 30 June, the minister changed his position by releasing plans to ban the industry by 30 June 2018. Of course, we know that this date was to change again; a leak of government papers revealed the date to be 28 February before it was then again changed, to the date we have before us today, 30 April.
Mr Assistant Speaker, as you can see, the government has been anything but clear and consistent. There have been multiple variations on policy and multiple ministers declaring different positions within days of each other. This is not consistent. In announcing a ban before changing it to defunding the industry, and then going back to a ban, with multiple dates for enforcement, nothing is clear. The minister has, on a number of occasions, refused to clarify his position that greyhound racing is out of step with community values. He declared in relation to election results:
In a democracy I believe there is no higher data.
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