Greyhound Racing

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (14:47): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing on the topic of greyhound injury data.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Category F is an injury category used in the nationally agreed convention for classifying injuries in greyhound racing. It is used in some jurisdictions in their annual reporting. Category F shows all fatalities, together with serious injuries that meet specific criteria, including fractures, dislocations, joint or skin injuries where the standdown period is some 60-plus days, or soft tissue injuries where the standdown period is 90-plus days.

Data provided to me by the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds shows that in a state comparison of those jurisdictions in Australia that continue to run greyhound racing South Australia consistently has the highest number of category F injury rates by 1,000 starts by far. Currently, in the financial year 2024, we sit at 5.6, and the next jurisdiction of NSW is 3.6, dropping down to 2.5 for Victoria.

My question to the minister is: why does South Australia, since at least 2019, consistently have significantly higher category F injury rates than any other jurisdiction in the country? What is the injury and death rate of greyhounds that this government will accept?

The Hon. E.S. BOURKE (Minister for Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Minister for Autism, Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing) (14:49): I thank the member for her question and ongoing advocacy in this space. As the member is aware and as the chamber is aware, the government appointed Sal Perna AM into the position of the Greyhound Industry Reform Inspector. I am advised that as of 8 September 2025, he has verified 42 recommendations arising from the independent inquiry that this chamber is very much aware of in regard to the governance of the greyhound racing industry.

I also am advised that matters that may not fall within the specific recommendations will also be taken into consideration by Mr Perna at the end of the two-year period as part of the final report and I make the decisions on whether the industry has met those requirements as well. As I have said many times in this chamber, I appreciate that there are many from within the industry and many that just love their greyhounds and the people that want to support them and rehome them as well.

I have had the privilege of meeting with a number of people and will continue to do so to make sure I am hearing all sides of the story and, as I have said before in this chamber, the greyhound industry is in the hands of the greyhound industry.