2016-08-16
Ms PENNICUIK (Southern Metropolitan) — Legislation is progressing through the New South Wales Parliament to end greyhound racing in New South Wales by 1 July 2017. The Greyhound Racing Prohibition Bill passed the New South Wales Legislative Council on 10 August; it is due to be debated in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly next Tuesday, 30 August. Yesterday I asked the Minister for Racing whether the government was conducting a thorough review into the culling of greyhounds as recommended by the racing integrity commissioner under his own-motion inquiry, given the lack of in-depth analysis of the extent of culling of greyhounds in Victoria in comparison to the New South Wales special commission of inquiry into greyhound racing, the report of which goes for eight chapters and 205 pages . I look forward to the response from the minister, due tomorrow.
Following my question, the Minister for Agriculture, by way of Twitter, suggested that I have not fully read the Perna and Milne reports. I have, and I take no issue with the reports given the very limited time and brief available for them to conduct them.
Perna concentrated on live baiting but mentioned culling on page 90 under 'Ancillary issues'. Milne concentrated on governance structures and mentioned overbreeding and culling on approximately five pages. Neither report looks at this issue in any depth or provides a full analysis or recommendations, except for the racing integrity commissioner calling for a thorough review and the chief officer recommending options that may be effective to reduce the numbers of greyhounds being bred. We know that 4000 greyhounds are culled every year; that is 48 000 in the last 12 years. The extensive analysis of the issues of so-called wastage in the report of the special inquiry concludes that the scale of the problem is immense and simply out of control. This is why the New South Wales government has taken the action that it has.