2023-03-06
2023 got off to a bad start for greyhounds. It's only March, and there have already been 25 track deaths and 1,963 injuries this year. Over the last weekend of January alone, four dogs were killed racing. The reality is all greyhound racing is cruel and it is unsafe. On average, three dogs die every week on Australian racetracks and a staggering 28 more are injured every single day. As the Coalition for the Protection for Greyhounds has said, this is an industry built on the broken bodies of gentle and beautiful dogs. There is cruelty inflicted on greys every step of the way.
Surgical artificial insemination, SAI, is used in about 80 per cent of breeding for greyhounds. SAI involves anaesthetising the dog, making an incision, and taking the uterus out to put sperm in it before replacing it and sewing the hole back up. It's as horrific and unethical as it sounds. SAI has been widely criticised by veterinary associations and the RSPCA. It is in fact illegal in the UK, Norway, Sweden and Holland. Disappointingly, the Perrottet government backflipped on a proposal to ban SAI following pressure from the racing lobby—yet another reason I look forward to voting the Liberals out in New South Wales on 25 March.
Over 70 per cent of greyhounds are discarded annually. Many of them are never rehomed. The national rate of greyhound breeding in 2020-21 was about six times the industry's capacity than to rehome them. Breeding numbers are way too high to ever rehome all racing greyhounds. This leaves volunteers and volunteer organisations to do the lion's share of rehoming despite the industry being more than financially capable of doing so. The greyhound industry's national turnover was $9.4 billion in 2020-21, and every single dollar of that is despicable blood money.
Disturbingly, there have also been recent reports of greyhounds being exported to countries where they end up being used for breeding against Greyhounds Australasia's rules. There is absolutely no way to ensure the welfare of these dogs. That's why last year I introduced a bill to ban the import and export of greyhounds for racing, breeding and other commercial purposes, and I will keep pushing for such a ban. I urge the minister to take action where the previous government demonstrated a callous indifference.
Anyone who has opened their homes to greyhounds knows how gentle and intelligent they are.
I was one of those lucky people, and I know my colleague across the chamber is also one of those people. There are more and more of us every single day. Public sentiment on greyhound racing continues to shift in the right direction. A survey from January commissioned by GREY2K USA Worldwide and the Coalition for the Protection for Greyhounds found that a clear majority of people in Australia, 57 per cent, think that greyhound racing should be banned or phased out. An even larger majority, 69 per cent, opposed government subsidising the greyhound industry. These numbers are supported by polling commissioned by my own office, which found that 58 per cent of people want greyhound racing banned, and this number is significantly higher among young people and women.
So, politicians across the country are failing to listen to the community, and there's an overarching reason for this: money. As with all industries on rapidly dwindling social licence—like the fossil fuel industry now and the tobacco industry many decades ago—the gambling industry throws cash at politicians on both sides. It was recently revealed that Sportsbet paid $19,000 to the campaign of communications minister Michelle Rowland. Tabcorp has disclosed donations totalling over $3 million since 1998 to Labor, the Liberals and the other parties. I'm so proud that the Greens have never taken—and will never take—gambling and racing money. In return, state governments inflate prize money, pay breeding incentives, prop up financially failing clubs, build racetracks and maintain weak welfare oversight of the industry. The cycle of legalised corruption repeats, and greyhounds continue to die and to get injured.
The world is moving away from greyhound racing, with just a tiny number of countries left perpetrating this unfathomable cruelty. Greyhound racing must be banned. And, mark my words: on the back of people power, it will be banned.