Dr WOODRUFF – Minister, on the transition to winding up greyhound racing, and I note the comments of the Racing Integrity Commissioner earlier, talking about the strong deterrents that are needed and the guidelines that are needed for him to do his work starting on 1 January and the importance of the legislation passing this year.
However, in relation to funding, this year’s Budget has $500,000 in it for phasing out greyhound racing, there are 1037 greyhounds in the industry as we understand at the moment, and there will need to be money for rehoming organisations for additional money, for dogs that are coming out of the industry, for a promotion for adopting the dogs, for industry participants for their financial assistance and there’s vet costs – at the moment $154,000, but they will need to be substantially more. Are you advocating for more than that funding in the next Budget, to be able to do that big body of support?
Ms HOWLETT – Chair, I thank the member for her question. We don’t actually know what things are going to look like yet, but we’ve got money in the initial output in this interim budget for the commissioner to commence his work, and have the resources that he needs. The Tasmanian Racing Integrity Commission has commenced work on establishing a comprehensive plan to support the phase-out has conveyed the working group, and the terms of reference for the working group has been established and is available on the website. That is something that we don’t know what it looks like yet.
As the transition occurs, the commissioner and his working group will have more oversight of what that is going to look like into the future years, and how we best allocate resources. We really don’t know how much that is going to look like yet and we need the working group to establish and communicate with participants in the industry and see what the needs are. Obviously there will be a need for rehoming, and we’re hoping that at the end of 2029 we have a significant reduction of greyhounds in the state that are racing. We’re certainly hoping not to have that number that you mentioned. Commissioner, would you like to speak to what the working group is doing?
Mr CARROLL – Thank you, minister, and thank you for the question. We’re very thankful and appreciative of the finance through the budget that we’ve been given, $500,000 for this current year. That primarily goes to audit inspectors, animal welfare officers and investigators to make sure that the key areas that we’ve already mentioned, specifically regarding animal welfare of greyhounds, are specifically addressed, and the traceability of greyhounds.
The working group will then work through the process as to the legislation and what issues – I’m in significant periods of consultation with various animal welfare groups and locations that are potential options for rehoming, as to what those costs will look like. In the New Year, I will work through what finances we need and make the appropriate budget application to operationalise the transition plan that we have put in place.
Dr WOODRUFF – Good. Thank you very much for that response. Through you minister to the commissioner, if that’s appropriate. That’s good to hear that you’re making a plan because with the vet bills for example, the work that needs to be done on desexing, dentals and vaccinations of the 1037 – they won’t all come at once, but just scaling up at the $750 per which is what it costs this year, that will be in the order of something like $780,000 just for that aspect of veterinary work to be done. Would you think that you’d be looking down into all those parts of the industry, and possibly doing some modelling about the time that the hump of when dogs will be being rehomed, and how that’s going to happen over the next three-to-four years?
Mr CARROLL – What I can say is that I’ve asked Tasracing to do some modelling in relation to the number of greyhounds that will come into the industry and leave the industry over the transition period. That’s why it’s so important, as you said before, that – and I made this comment last week to the parliamentary committee – we can’t afford to have 1037 greyhounds come 30 June 2029. That’s why the modelling that is being done by Tasracing is so important to work out how we have a manageable number come the end of 30 June 2029 over that period of time. I acknowledge the anguish that the greyhound participants are going through. However, it’s important to understand that the significant animal welfare issues that may be incurred if we don’t go through this phase‑out period towards 30 June 2029 completely.
To your point, as far as the budget lines that are required across the board, veterinary care and adoption is one of the key areas that we’re looking at. As I said, we’ve commenced those conversations with various groups to see what those costs will be.
