I’ve often felt that the NSW parliament is the best argument one could give against democracy. It is an institution with a long history of favouring vested interests, and the racing tax parity bill before parliament continues that history.
Last week, Racing NSW sent an email out to subscribers congratulating themselves on the legislation being put before parliament. It shouldn’t be missed that the other codes in the NSW also contributed to lobbying for the legislation change.
Here’s a tip for the cynical reader: whenever reading legislation introduced by a political party of any persuasion, don’t just read the press release. Go to the actual legislation, and read the document, starting at the last page, where the contentious or self-serving parts of the legislation are to be found.
For the tax parity legislation, it is here where the stated aims of the legislation becomes quite Orwellian.
While the stated aim of the bill is to reduce the taxes on income generated on TAB wagering to the same level as Victoria, it also contains a $10 million annual cash grab by the thoroughbreds.
What happens in racing is that each code – thoroughbreds, greyhounds and harness – generate income via people betting at the TAB. According to Australian Racing Fact Book 2014, the income generated in NSW by each of the codes in 2013-14 was approximately 64.6 per cent by betting on thoroughbreds, 22.5 per cent on greyhounds, and 12.9 per cent on harness.
This new bill will distribute the extra money by giving 77.3 per cent to the thoroughbreds, 10 per cent to the greyhounds, and 12.7 per cent to harness.
Fair? No. Parity? No.
This is even worse for greyhound racing than the current distribution of funds through the Intercode agreement that has a 70, 13 and 17 per cent split. The total amount of money generated by betting on greyhound racing distributed to the other two codes will be between $20 and $25 million a year.
The Racing Minister, Troy Grant, needs to come clean as to how these negotiations were structured, who was involved and how the figures were produced.
Instead of exacerbating the status quo, a parliamentary inquiry by the Upper House recommended that these funds be shared on a more even basis, while also diverting much-needed funds into improving animal welfare outcomes for greyhounds.
This course of action is similar to what I have previously argued and what Victoria and Great Britain have done with great success.
Instead, the NSW parliament is yet again looking at greyhound racing as a means to line the pockets of others, somehow oblivious to the problems that such short-sightedness creates.
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