Mr. President, at one level, I understand the reasoning behind this motion. This has been a sudden policy reversal on the part of government, and the reasons for that are plain to us all.
However, it’s still a disappointing move by the member for Murchison because, as we know, it is fraught with risk, which was made clear to us in this morning’s briefings. The member asked us when a major reform went through this place without community consultation; well, I point the Council to the 157-page stadium order which was tabled on 4 November, completely absent of community consultation.
The Greyhound Racing Legislation Amendments (Phasing Out Reform) Bill was tabled two days later and it is certainly not 157 pages. Enough members felt comfortable with the stadium order to wave it through, despite the fact it wasn’t the result of a question ever being asked of the Tasmanian people or the community I represent in Hobart. The Greens’ concern is that delaying the bill plays right into the industry’s hands at the expense of dogs and in defiance of clear public sentiment. Delay and then a complete derailment of this reform is the industry’s goal.
I take honourable members who may not have had an opportunity to listen to it, to The Greyhound Girl podcast, which is an industry podcast. There was a conversation on that podcast between Luke Gatehouse, the man from Queensland brought in by the industry to advocate for them, and former Labor leader and member for Franklin, Dean Winter, and I read into the Hansard some of what the industry’s objective is here. This is part of the reason that, of course, the Greens in this place will not be supporting the motion to delay. He says:[tbc]
We are not running an exercise in education at this point in time, that’s a longer-term strategy that should have been happening for years. Those who don’t like us have that narrative out there and we’re not going to win that battle overnight. Our major battle is the decision-makers at the moment. Anyone who’s listening in Tassie or around Australia, find out who your local upper House representative is – or I think they are called the Legislative Council down there –
I mean, such is his local knowledge, he wasn’t so sure. I go back to the quote:
There’s 15 of them and, at the moment, there’s probably about five who vote for this legislation to go through. You need eight votes to get through and we don’t want another three to vote for it to get through. We want it to be either stopped or referred for some, err, wider scrutiny, would be a polite term to put it.
He goes on to call us opportunists when, really, he well knows that our consistent advocacy for animals is a matter of public record, and he says:
What I’ve been saying to our committee, we are in a strategic fight here that’s got an end date of 2029. If they brought it forward like they did in New Zealand, the fight would be harder, but what we’ve got is a little bit of time up our sleeve because what it’s going to be is a long battle.
And then he goes:
We don’t want to get into the welfare debate because we’re playing right into their narrative, because they’ve got all their little catchphrases and their clips they roll out from wherever they get them from. Our issue is that we have an industry that’s highly regulated, we’ve been going through ongoing reforms since 2016 across the country and it’s not a matter of the welfare of greyhounds because that is a given, because that is the number one factor that our decisions are based on.
Well, I will pause for a moment here to say the data brings that bold claim into disrepute; and from Mr Winter, he starts with:
That’s the message I wanna get to. Look, next week is likely going to be a vote and I’m very hopeful that we’ve done the work over the past few weeks, not that we’ve had a lot of time, to at least stop the bill from progressing, at least pressing pause on it. It would be an amazing night next Thursday at the Hobart 1000, having knocked the bill off, knocked the laws off, get a win and then go in and watch some greyhound racing and celebrate with the rest of the group, but I think the most likely thing is that – well, the best outcome, probably, is going to be just to get it paused and, if that’s the case, it’s going to be a long fight ahead of us over the next few months as we make sure all the facts come out.
Well, the facts of this industry’s toll on greyhounds are a matter of public record: They are embedded in the Tasracing annual report, they were put before the 2015 joint select inquiry into the industry. The facts are very well known. The Racing Integrity Commissioner, the statutory officer we have tasked with oversighting the racing codes, has asked us not to delay the bill and he’s outlined the risks. The things that he told us were not claims, as has been suggested today; he presented us with data, with facts about an increase in breeding ahead of 1 January, an increase by 86 dogs imported to the island since the Premier’s announcement, and we’re seeing in Tasracing’s annual report an increase in euthanasia, which is a euphemism for killing dogs before their time is up.
I note the commissioner offered all members of both Houses briefings following the government’s announcement and I’m advised by him that very few, with the exception of the Greens and a handful of independents, took up his offer. If honourable members had taken that opportunity to hear from the commissioner before this point at any time after the bill was tabled more than a month ago, they could have put those questions to him about whether compensation is part of the government’s consideration. It is our very clear understanding that compensation, a just transition for industry participants, is a necessary part of this reform. The Greens acknowledge that.
We acknowledge that there are people in the industry who’ve been in this industry for a very long time. It represents their livelihood. There are other people in the industry who don’t make much money out of it, but they love being part of it. We acknowledge that. We acknowledge that this is causing pain and that’s why we accept that there will need to be a just transition and compensation for industry participants. It’s the right thing to do and I understand that the government understands that very clearly.
For the detail, this bill is very interesting. It provides an architecture for reform. It also empowers the Racing Integrity Commissioner to develop the transition plan and that transition plan would include a just compensation package. It would also make sure that we’re looking after the dogs that are caught up in the industry now.
The commissioner outlined to the joint select committee – which I’m a part of, and the Deputy Chair – in the briefing today, the extensive efforts he made at consultation, personal contact with industry representatives, offers to talk, invitations to join the roundtable and an open letter in all three Tasmanian papers to the industry, to animal lovers, to the broader Tasmanian community, to feed in to his development of the transition plan and to feed in to the process of this reform, which we know has high and strong community support.
Greyhounds Tasmania, a recently established, unaffiliated body with its head from Queensland’s notoriously deadly greyhound racing industry, presumed to speak on behalf of all industry participants and refused to participate in any consultation with the commissioner. Greyhounds Tasmania reiterated this message to the joint select committee, and I will just pause for a moment here to say the joint select committee has examined the bill. We have invited the commissioner in, a number of industry participants, the RSPCA and the Dogs’ Home. We have heard plenty of evidence, and – sorry?
Ms Webb – And the department.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you, honourable member for Nelson, and of course we had the department come in and speak to us on the record as well. We went into some detail on this bill. We asked industry participants if they would feed in, in any way, to this bill and its passage through, and they won’t. I get that, at a human level, because to the industry that would be putting up the white flag. But if we delay this bill, what kind of meaningful consultation will change anything in the broader Tasmanian greyhound racing industry’s view? No amount of consultation will change the industry’s position.
The industry, as has been made clear in that podcast, wants to kill off this bill. It wants to keep exploiting dogs at public expense in Tasmania, and they know that if greyhound racing ends here because of the shift in public sentiment, it will be like a domino effect around the country, and that’s why they’re terrified. That’s why they’ve unleashed the CEO from Queensland on us. That’s why Greyhounds Australasia is suddenly interested in Tasmania – because they don’t want this bill to pass and delaying the bill gives them the opportunity to make that happen. The industry and Labor are pushing hard for just this result, a delay.
I encourage members to be very careful about ignoring the advice of the statutory officer and the RSPCA and listening instead to the voice of shameless self-interest, articulated as it has been to us by Luke Gatehouse. What will delay achieve? More time for the industry, led by this figure from Queensland and on behalf of the national greyhound racing and gambling industries and the big online gambling industries, to lobby MLCs, to lobby us. I’m sure they won’t be lobbying the Greens, but I’m sure they will put a lot of effort, should this be delayed, into lobbying people they think they can sway into propping up this dying unpopular industry. Greyhounds Tasmania is not a representative body, and members should note that.
Delay will lead to more dogs being born. That’s what the commissioner told us. It wasn’t a claim, it’s a fact. On his data, there are 200 pups in the making so far or thereabouts and, according to the commissioner, more are likely to be bred in coming months. Delay will lead inevitably to more dead and injured dogs. The numbers of dogs in the industry went from a bit over 850 at the time of the Premier’s announcement to 1036 after the commissioner’s audit of registered, to as many as 1500 dogs we heard today, caught in the industry by next March. Potentially more, given the commissioner’s concerns about greyhounds currently on unlicensed premises out of any site or mind. That’s more than 1500 dogs that will need rehoming if this bill passes – most of whom will live shorter, sadder lives if it does not.
The intractable problem with this industry is its business model. It has to keep pushing out new product. That’s the bottom line: fragile, gentle dogs. Dogs that are fine boned, fast, that reach speeds of up to 70 kilometres an hour on the track, which is why, of course, when there’s an accident on the track, it’s too often catastrophic for the animals. According to the record of injuries, shattered limbs, broken backs and ruptured necks are inevitable.
Those dogs, which are spat out the other side of this business model, are very difficult to rehome. It is hard to rehome big dogs, but, as we heard from the RSPCA CEO Andrea Dawkins today, not impossible, and they are up to the task if we give it to them through this bill. Of course, that task will be so much harder should the bill be delayed because there’ll be more dogs that need to be rehomed and that’s a fact. The statutory officers told us that, the data confirms it. His audit confirms it.
There is no solution to the industry’s business model. It breeds these dogs as commodities to make profit and then it discards them. It’s simply what it is. It requires ramming new product into the front of the pipeline, racing them hard until they run out of puff and cost more to feed than they earn. Then this enormous bulge of leftover dogs out the other end of that pipeline. Leftover sentient, gentle, beautiful dogs.
The industry just can’t deal with the massive amount of its industrial waste. Rehoming organisations and animal lovers who are taking these gentle creatures in are left to clean up the mess. It’s not the industry that cleans up its industrial waste. It’s taxpayers, it’s rehoming organisations and its people who will adopt a greyhound, which is a pretty big job. When they’ve been through a rehoming program, quite a few of them are still scared, stressed, under socialised, don’t like men and can’t handle big social situations. They often have health problems that require ongoing veterinary treatment. Adopting a greyhound is a very costly proposition.
Yesterday, in NSW the long-awaited release of the Drake report into the industry, we heard the NSW industry’s answer to its industrial waste is to put these beautiful animals into crates, onto planes to the United States, and they’re dying on the way.
It doesn’t take much of a stretch of empathy to consider what it must be like for those dogs; used up by the industry, most of their life in a cage – and it’s true, most of their life in a cage – and then put into a crate for a 24-hour flight across the Pacific Ocean to America, and they’re dying on the way. This is the industry’s big dirty industrial waste issue and it’s one that they can’t and will never resolve. It is just ethically wrong.
There’s also a risk, as we know – despite the law, despite the rules of racing – that some industry participants will take matters into their own hands. As Tasracing’s annual report shows, there’s been an uplift in euthanasia; and this uplift in euthanasia was confirmed by the Racing Integrity Commissioner.
There’s a bit of chatter here on the wonderful Rosie Saville’s Facebook page. A number of members in this place will know and admire Rosie and her tenacious advocacy for these dogs. She acknowledges building a village of strong, passionate campaigners who have worked together side-by-side in solidarity to deliver this reform. When we’re talking about the mental health of people who are caught up in this issue, we cannot forget the mental health of animal welfare advocates and campaigners and volunteers who work in shelters, who are seeing the byproduct of this industry come into the shelters on an almost daily basis. Their mental health is also being impacted.
Anyway, some fellow who seems to know the industry quite well gets on and says, ‘Rosie Saville, you better check to see how many dog graves were found when there was a hint of racing bans. Plus, you’re talking thousands in Australia, more than what you’re seeing now. Check how many dogs are currently racing now and tell me as if they’re all going to be adopted.’ It’s not a bad question. If we delay this bill and if we don’t pass this bill, we are going to be dealing with hundreds more dogs that will require rehoming.
We’ve also seen some very unfortunate abuse and threats, and I think misogynistic language, directed towards the Minister for Racing, who’s simply doing her job. It’s not Ms Howlett’s fault there was a change of policy. She has had to carry this, and she’s had to cop the slings and arrows that have come from an industry that was made a promise in July. We can acknowledge that; but also, the the people who are occupying the government’s benches now came back in well short of a majority. They needed to make some compromises in order to persuade the crossbench that they were open to new ways of working.
Ms Howlett has handled this with dignity and grace; and for that, she’s copped some of the most vile, misogynistic, threatening language. It hasn’t been helped by some of the language coming out of some of our colleagues in the other place.
I want to briefly go to the Tasracing annual report to again explain why delay is problematic. If you go to the tables on page 16, you’re seeing that on-track euthanasia, as of the end of 2024-25, there were two dogs euthanised on track. We’re seeing that in the greyhound retirement in the greyhound retirement data that there have been 41 dogs euthanised. In 2022-23, there were 17 euthanised. We had some excuses made about a small number of dogs this morning and why they might have been put to death early, but it does not explain 41 dogs on retirement being euthanised out of this industry. It’s a fact that these dogs live shorter lives than other dogs.
I’ve got a 17-year-old terrier. He’s old and he’s rickety and he’s going blind and deaf and we’ve just found out, and I’m not surprised, his heart is twice the size it should be. He’s a lion-hearted little dog. He has lived a long and happy life. He was a Dog’s Home dog. He’d been mistreated. That’s 17 years.
Most of the dogs in this industry are not making it past three or four years of age. They’re really only just out of puppyhood before they’re catastrophically injured or put to death, discarded. It’s completely and utterly unacceptable. Worryingly, last year, we’re seeing litters are up. Last year the number of litters was 19. This year it’s been 25. Last year, the number of pups whelped was 110, this financial year, 155. As the commissioner told us this morning, there are more dogs being bred right now ahead of the potential 1 January beginning of the transition period. It’s hard not to form the view that the industry is preparing some fresh meat to feed into the pipeline just in case the bill passes and they’ve got four years left.
I do refer honourable members to the Tasracing Annual Report. I’m sure many members here have met greyhounds. They are really beautiful dogs. A number of members, like some of us when we were younger, would have seen them being taken around by their trainers with muzzles on. We would have perhaps believed that these were a separate and different type of dog. A dog, given that it was muzzled, that was dangerous and that was part of the plan, to separate, in the public’s mind, this species of dog. To paint it as a dangerous dog so that our natural empathy towards dogs didn’t perhaps extend as fully towards them.
They are a gentle, affectionate, goofy animal. They’re a lazy animal, they’re well known as 100 kilometre-an-hour couch potatoes. They are extremely lovable. Everyone I’ve spoken to who’s adopted a greyhound is absolutely in love with them. I fell in love just a few days ago out on the lawns when I met Mighty Mouse.
Mighty Mouse is a big brindle boy who’s just come out of the racing industry. When I bent down to give him a pat, he was straight in here to nuzzle me. Leaned in, affectionate, loving. Unfortunately, I have two dogs at home and I can’t take Mighty Mouse, but the next dog we adopt will certainly and necessarily be a greyhound. Mighty Mouse is looking forward to adoption. There are plenty of dogs in this industry that never got the chance. I will take you now to the very short story of Tah Bernard. Tah Bernard died in 2021. He was just a year-and-a-half old. He was one of infamous trainer Anthony Bullock’s suffering dogs. He suffered a broken leg during a trial at the Launceston track. There were no vets available at the trials, which is a massive integrity and animal welfare failing, I might say.
He was taken to the local vet by Bullock, but on leaving the vet, Bullock was seen and is alleged to have thrown the dog into the trailer. People who witnessed it saw and heard him yelping. Distressed vet clients and animal advocates raised it with us and it prompted an official investigation. There wasn’t found to be any breaches of the Animal Welfare Act 1993 but his life, that dog’s life, and ultimately his death, tells us something about the welfare issues at trials and at race meets. Imagine not having a vet there at trials, given what those dogs are expected to do and the risk to them.
Then, there was another industry commodity, otherwise known as Zipping Princess. She was born in 2020 in New South Wales. She passed through five trainers in four separate states. She didn’t stay with any trainer longer than a few months. She was advertised on Gumtree and when she was collected she was full of fleas, flea dirt, dried skin and she smelled like sulphur powder – which is apparently a home remedy for fleas. She had a bloodied ear from scratching, bald patches, old scars, and her tail had been previously broken. She had no energy and she didn’t want to eat; she was withdrawn and fearful.
A few days after being rescued off Gumtree, Zipping Princess was taken to the vet for emergency surgery because she was so sick, and that surgery revealed that she had scarring adhesions on her belly from a very poorly performed desexing. They were strangling her bowel. Her blood vessels were twisted and tissue around the area of the operation was dying. She got through the surgery but died. She was put to sleep the next day because her condition deteriorated. She was three years old.
Raider’s Guide, 8 July 2025. He bumped into another greyhound – again at the Launceston track. He had a Tasmanian record of prize money of $664,975 from 79 starts. Raider’s Guide was taken to the vet and a post-examination revealed he’d suffered cervical spine injuries. Raider’s Guide was put down recently. We’ve lodged a Right to Information request to find out what happened to this dog.
Lipstick Lazy – another Bullock dog – date of birth 12 May 2023. Last race 10 November 2025. Scratched on 13 November 2025, dead. Don’t know why, don’t know how. Another dog expended from this industry, but we will find out a little more from our Right to Information request.
Just today we got more information about a dog called Just Regal. Fell out of the back straight on 11 November at Elwick. Was severely injured, a right-hind stifle injury. Was sent to the vet and a stand-down period of 60 days was recommended. Just Regal is now listed as deceased, just another dog discarded by this industry.
In many ways this push to end greyhound racing in Tasmania began with the Four Corners report that went to air in August 2015. I don’t know how many honourable members saw that at the time, but it sent a shockwave through the nation. We saw cruelty, neglect, dogs in tiny cages. We saw what the industry describes as ‘wastage’, which of course is the early death and discardment and death of dogs; ‘draining’ where, because greyhounds have a particular blood type, they’re taken to the vet before they’re euthanised because their blood is useful for other more-loved domestic dogs and then their bodies were taken out the back and dumped.
We saw evidence on Four Corners of live baiting. There was a possum and a piglet that was used for live baiting at bull rings that were covertly filmed for this program. It’s all part of the industry’s business model. And yes, there have been some minor improvements around animal welfare but the business model itself is static. It cannot change. On the back of that Four Corners inquiry, I rang Jeremy Rockliff, who was then the minister for Primary Industries with responsibility for animal welfare. I said, ‘Jeremy, did you see Four Corners last night?’ ‘Oh yeah, Cass. Oh, just -‘ and I said, ‘Well, we need an inquiry here to understand what’s happening with the industry down here.’ And he said, ‘Leave it with me.’
This is a minister in a majority government who didn’t have to make any effort for an inquiry, but he organised it. He enabled us to make that inquiry happen. We heard extensive evidence from industry representatives all over the island, from animal welfare advocates, from whistleblowers who’d seen the cruelty, who’d seen the bull rings. We’ve had Mr Gatehouse cite that inquiry as some kind of endorsement of his industry. I was the only Green on that inquiry, totally outnumbered by members who either supported or were ambivalent about this industry with its demonstrated track record of cruelty and exploitation; but that said, the evidence within the report – if you set aside the recommendations that were a majority recommendation, because the Greens put in a dissenting report – that inquiry, the evidence within that report, is damning of the industry.
We had evidence of cruelty, neglect, of animals kept in substandard conditions, being fed, bred – we had evidence of blooding, wastage and live-baiting right here in Tasmania, and it should have been a massive wake-up call. The industry should have been banned then. As a result of that committee’s work, there were some reforms, and some of them have been good reforms. There’s now better lifecycle tracking, in part because of the relentless tenacity of animal welfare advocates who doggedly, pardon the pun, pursued data on what was happening to these dogs. There’s been a move away from routine euthanasia, although as we know, plenty is still happening.
I left on the honourable members’ tables sometime earlier this year the report undertaken by Animal Justice Tasmania, A Few Bad Apples. I hope members took the opportunity to have a look at that. Kristy Alger, who is a tenacious animal welfare advocate, used a drone to get footage of what’s happening inside greyhound training properties. It is not isolated incidents for greyhounds to be kept in very substandard conditions, sort of like concrete bunkers with little narrow runs, bowls full of slimy water. If any member wants to really understand how uniform the treatment of dogs is in this industry in Tasmania and what’s acceptable under the rules of racing in terms of their housing and feeding, I recommend going back to the A Few Bad Apples report.
Of course, the most rotten apple of them all is Anthony Bullock. He has been busted for operating without a kennel licence up there near Exeter, with 80 or more dogs kept on concrete floors in wire cages. He didn’t have a kennel licence for a decade. What did he get for that? A slap on the wrist, and he continues to operate. He was hit with a lifetime ban and charged with having live animal products on his property, which is code for potential live-baiting. That lifetime ban, as so often happens with cruelty here in the industry, whether any one of the codes, was overturned by the Tasmanian Racing Appeal Board. Anthony Bullock is not only still operating; as per the Tasmanian Racing annual report, he’s Tasmania’s number one greyhound racing trainer. His cruelty is being rewarded: the Tasmanian trainer of the year.
If anyone wants an idea of what it’s like at Bullock’s property, I’ve got pictures here of bowls full of bread that are being fed to his dogs; pictures here of dogs in cages that are not wide enough for them to stretch out, miserable-looking dogs in cages; here’s Mr Bullock dragging a couple of skinny-looking greyhounds across the track. It looks like Elwick because Kunanyi is in the background; there’s a couple of desperate greyhounds with their heads under the cage trying to make contact with whoever was taking the photo. I mean, goodness me, these eyes, miserable, sad dogs.
Here’s a picture of his vats, these are the vats that Anthony Bullock cooks Ben Yole’s disposed horses in and we’ve got pictures of that. We’ve got pictures of the vats and we know that cycle of abject cruelty, it’s perpetuated right there. Ben Yole was sending his discarded horses to Anthony Bullock, who was also busted for operating an illegal slaughterhouse on his property. Anthony Bullock kills those horses and feeds them to his miserable dogs when he’s not feeding them bread.
Here’s a picture of him cutting up a horse carcass; here’s a picture of a vat full of dead horses. The response to all this suffering of sentient creatures has been a massive shift in public sentiment, after a long and dedicated campaign by some of the greatest people I’ve ever met in my life. Those campaigners worked with the Greens to deliver the biggest petition the Tasmanian parliament’s ever seen: 13,500 signatures calling for an end to greyhound racing and the subsidies that underpin it. This is supported by Enterprise Marketing and Research Services (EMRS) polling that consistently shows more than 70 per cent opposition. The most recent EMRS poll showed 74 per cent opposition to this industry and 11 per cent support.
I want to take this moment to thank these extraordinary women who have helped to deliver the reforms underpinned in the bill that it would be good if we could debate and pass: Emma Haswell, an incredible animal welfare advocate from Brightside; the indefatigable Fran Chambers, who was there back in 2016 when we had our first rally there with her beautiful greyhounds Paddy and Missy; Mel Fitzpatrick; the wonderful Rosie Saville, who was here earlier today to watch the briefings and I know works very hard inside the Liberal Party to protect the interests of these dogs; the terrific Deb Fleming; Kristy Alger; Andrea Dawkins from the RSPCA; and Mark Wild from the Dogs’ Home. I want to acknowledge the work of my colleagues in the other place, my friend and leader Rosalie Woodruff, who’s been part of this fight for a long time and spoke on the bill in the other place; the member for Clark, Kristie Johnston with her huge heart, who is the chair of the joint select committee; and other independents in this place and in the other place who have been a voice for these dogs. We’ve established a transition oversight committee, as members know, that has examined the bill. We’ve called witnesses. We’ve heard evidence. The evidence we’ve heard points to an industry that’s desperate to keep operating, animal welfare advocates who see the byproduct of this industry. We asked detailed questions on the bill.
There’s no amount of extra consultation that will change the industry’s position. In process terms, I understand why the honourable member for Murchison would want our committee to go back and re-examine those things that we’ve examined and potentially call for public submissions. The issue here is that you either support greyhound racing or you don’t. In the end, it’s that simple. Overwhelmingly, Tasmanians don’t support greyhound racing.
I will tell you who does support greyhound racing: that is the Tasmanian Labor Party. They support the publicly subsidised exploitation, mistreatment, injury and early death of dogs and that seems to be the hill that they want to die on politically. When the bill went through the other place there were six revved-up speakers, passionate speakers for the industry: Mr Winter, Ms Finlay, Ms Butler, Ms Dow, Mr Mitchell and Dr Broad. Not one of those honourable members of the other place spoke on the stadium order; nor, over the past two years at least, did they ask any questions about this hugely financially, socially and environmentally consequential project, that the evidence tells us will cause their voters and their constituents suffering as services are slashed to pay for it, but if we just step aside from the politics of it –
Ms O’CONNOR – Do you find something amusing, Mr Hiscutt?
Mr Hiscutt – Yes.
Ms O’CONNOR – Do you want to share that?
Mr PRESIDENT – Just continue with your debate.
Ms O’CONNOR – Putting that aside, ending greyhound racing is simply the right thing to do. It’s the ethical and moral thing to do. It acknowledges that greyhounds are sentient creatures, that the greyhound is just another breed of dog. They’re not a number, they’re not a racing machine, they’re not something to be disposed of when they have stopped making money. They have a heart, they have a soul, they give and feel love, just like we do and over tens of thousands of years, human beings and dogs have evolved together and we have developed a special kind of bond and a special kind of relationship.
Dogs are our companions, they are our friends and they are a family. Greyhounds, just another beautiful dog, deserve our protection. They deserve freedom and they deserve freedom from exploitation. They deserve our love and they deserve an end to this industry.
If the motion is passed, which obviously the Greens aren’t going to support, and I can’t speak for the whole committee, but if the bill is referred to us to examine over the summer break, I’m absolutely certain, of course, that we will but the consequence of the delay I’ve outlined, and it’s very significant, it’s about the lives of these dogs, not just over the next few months, but over the next four years and after, and we should keep them front-of-mind. I will not be supporting the motion.
