Mr President, I will be very brief. I wanted to draw members’ attention to some commentary that happened on social media overnight following our debate on the motion to defer deliberation on the greyhound transition bill in here yesterday. I think it’s commentary that members should be aware of.
The Hobart Greyhound Racing Club is celebrating. It has party hats and the opening comment: ‘We have been referred back to committee’. While one of the posters, Mr Ray Brittane, has said, ‘Start breeding and don’t stop. Breed whatever you can afford to, it’s great news.’ Jeff Crawford says, ‘A great step in the right direction. The fight will continue’.
We have collectively been accused of caring more about our pensions, which don’t exist and haven’t since 1998, by Mr John Cerola who says, ‘This discussion is not about greyhounds. They don’t care. It’s about their pension and how they can get votes.’ Obviously, we could probably all refute that.
Justin Durie asked, ‘What does this mean?’ The Hobart Greyhound Racing Club says, ‘It means the bill will not be law this year.’ And Justin Durie asks, ‘So people can breed and those dodgy rules won’t apply yet?’ The Hobart Greyhound Racing Club replies, ‘It means that the legislation doesn’t come into effect on 1 January, so yes’.
Then on Mr Dean Winter’s Facebook page he had a quite misleading, unfortunately, post which said, ‘Big win for Labor today. We stopped the Liberals and Greens shutting down greyhound racing’. Quite a few sensible people have got on there and reminded him that that is completely untrue. I encourage Mr Winter to have a slightly better grip on reality in relation to this subject.
Because of the concerns that were raised with us by the Racing Integrity Commissioner during the briefings, the matters that were discussed in here yesterday, on behalf of the Greens, I have written to the Racing Integrity Commissioner and asked him how he will use his powers to ensure the welfare of greyhounds in the industry over the next few months, and also to uphold the integrity to the greatest extent possible of the greyhound racing industry during the period while the joint select committee undertakes its further inquiry, as it has been charged with doing by this House.
I note that the Hobart 1000 is on tonight. I’m sure Mr Winter will be there and that there will be greyhound participants who are celebrating the deferral of the vote. I trust that, next year, we can provide those participants with some certainty about their future. I certainly hope that we will ultimately, once the committee is reported, be the upholders of the freedom and the rights of animals, dogs and greyhounds in this case.
Before I go, I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas, peace in their homes, for everyone to just laugh as much as possible, drink in moderation, and to have a really happy summer. I look forward to seeing everyone back in here in March.
