Page 4608 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 November 2018
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The Minister for City Services has ongoing responsibility for the welfare protections for greyhounds, including the formal two-year monitoring of the effectiveness of the measures put in place to protect the welfare of the greyhounds owned, bred or trained by ACT residents for racing elsewhere. He will continue this government’s work to ensure that greyhounds in the ACT are well looked after, whether they are enjoying life as a pet or being sent to race somewhere across the border.
I present the following paper:
Greyhound industry transition—Ministerial statement, 1 November 2018.
I move:
That the Assembly take note of the paper.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (10.10): It is again extremely disappointing to come into this place and listen to the minister brag about his execution of the greyhound industry. The greyhound racing industry is full of good people. It is full of people who love their dogs. It is full of people who are doing and did the right thing, most of whom have voted Labor for most of their lives. I do note, as we have pointed out time and again in this place, this is the only branch of the Labor Party around the country which has adopted this position. The minister has subjected these people, who do the right thing, to a nightmare, some of whom have told me that they no longer feel comfortable walking their dogs after being subjected to abuse from strangers.
Like just about any other part of the community, there are people within the greyhound industry who chose to do the wrong thing. And like every other section of the community, those within the greyhound industry were appalled by the actions of the very few.
The ACT greyhound industry was particularly disappointed, given that no animal welfare breach has ever been reported or conviction reported, at the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club. There was no basis whatsoever for this ban. The Canberra racing industry, time and again, expressed their desire to work with the government and animal welfare groups to reform the industry and to ensure that those doing the right thing were not unfairly punished for the actions of the few who chose to disregard the rules.
Unfortunately this government and the minister showed absolutely no interest in working with the industry and those doing the right thing. Instead they chose to unfairly victimise the industry and the Canberra racing community, who I think should have been held as an example to those around the country: this is how you run a greyhound industry.
Ideology is what drives this Labor-Greens coalition and any pastime which they deem to be beneath them or undesirable is under threat. I cannot help but draw a comparison between the plight of the greyhound industry and our local clubs. Now that the minister has finished executing the greyhound industry he has set his sights on our
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