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Greens Greyhound Bill: 12 months in gaol just for having a punt

Roar Guru
20th May, 2015
9

Well, I know what you’re thinking. You’ve been suckered into another headline that is just mere clickbait, telling a story of something that happened on the other side of the world, stripped of context to make it more absurd.

Alas, I’m talking about what politicians want to do here, and now, in Australia, criminalising an activity and introducing punitive measures to enforce their will.

In the NSW Parliament, the NSW Greens have been in the media promoting their Bill to ban greyhound racing.

That’s fine, but as always compliant journalists seem to do little more than copy and paste press releases, rather than reading the draft Bill, considering the consequences if it became law, and then informing the public what that would entail.

So, let’s have a look at it properly, shall we, and give ourselves the chance to pass fair judgement.

(The bill, currently drafted by Green MP John Kaye, is here.)

Sneakily buried deep in the second-last page of the draft Bill is how to deal with an expected issue, that there would be no greyhound racing in NSW but it would exist in other states.

Therefore, the Bill would make it an offence for a person in NSW to bet on a greyhound race that is lawfully being conducted in another state, punishable by up to one year imprisonment.

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That’s right, the retirees at your local RSL will be risking a year in the slammer for a $1 bet at Sandown.

Remarkably, if you organised a greyhound race in NSW, as explained clearly in the Explanatory Notes on Page 2 of the draft Bill, you will be liable only for a fine up to $5,500.

Of course, this puritanical clause isn’t outlined in the press releases, and journalism 101 is to take all politicians at their word, not to question them with the cynicism that they’ve well and truly earned in the state of NSW.

Imagine the education programs, where the racecaller has to patiently explain to NSW viewers that if they try and have a $1 flutter on the next at the Meadows, they’re risking a year at Silverwater Correctional Complex.

This part of the Bill was written out of pure spite and should be condemned as such. It’s prohibition-era, not progressive, politics that is simply about kicking people with different interests.

There are also a large number of animal welfare issues that the Bill itself creates.

In a later article, I’ll go through what this Bill would mean for the greyhounds and whether it should be seen as a serious attempt to enhance animal welfare outcomes, and contrast it to what GRNSW is implementing right now.

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