Bills

Freedom of Information (Greyhound Racing Transparency) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 4 September 2025.)

The Hon. T.T. NGO (17:03): I rise to speak on behalf of the government on the Freedom of Information (Greyhound Racing Transparency) Amendment Bill. While the government acknowledges the significant efforts of the honourable member and the intent of this bill, unfortunately we will not be supporting it.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Ngo will be heard in silence.

The Hon. T.T. NGO: The bill seeks to amend the Freedom of Information Act 1991 by including Greyhound Racing South Australia within the definition of 'agency'. This would effectively subject Greyhound Racing SA to the same freedom of information obligations as government bodies. It was outlined in response to a similar proposal last year that the Freedom of Information Act is designed to promote transparency and accountability within government agencies. Its jurisdiction does not generally extend to non-government entities such as Greyhound Racing SA.

This bill stems from a recommendation made by the Animal Justice Party which was included in the 'Independent inquiry into the governance of the greyhound racing industry in South Australia' conducted by Mr Graham Ashton AM APM. The government has accepted this recommendation in principle; however, the inquiry itself noted that some of these recommendations overlap with those already contained in the broader review.

There are numerous other recommendations from the inquiry aimed at strengthening transparency and accountability within the greyhound racing sector—among them are recommendations 24, 27, 33, 37, 48 and 54. These cover:

strengthening traceability and reporting, examples being mandatory tracking of greyhounds from birth and better welfare data collection;

reforming of drug testing and integrity practices, an example being more frequent hair testing;

improving track safety, examples being more straight-track racing and better track design, and improving welfare standards on and off track;

enhancing the Greyhounds as Pets program to ensure better outcomes for retired or unraced dogs;

requiring stronger governance standards—board roles, declarations of interests, external audits and enforcing compliance; and

establishing an independent Greyhound Industry Reform Inspector with oversight powers.

I note that this parliament passed the Greyhound Industry Reform Inspector Act 2024, which established the office of Greyhound Industry Reform Inspector. The inspector, Mr Sal Perna AM, commenced on 8 July 2024 and has published several progress reports, which are available on the Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing website.

Given the inspector's ongoing work, the comprehensive set of transparency measures already being implemented and the fact that this bill falls outside the intended scope of the FOI Act, the government will not be supporting the proposed amendment. However, we acknowledge the Hon. Tammy Franks' advocacy in this area and thank her for her ongoing efforts over many years.

The Hon. C. BONAROS (17:08): I rise very briefly to place on the record my support for this bill and to thank the Hon. Tung Ngo for a very timely reminder about how we treat recommendations from reviews and reports. I am pretty sure that this week, a couple of days ago, I had a briefing from the education minister's office about a bill that we will be debating that picks up on one of the recommendations of the royal commission. There is a standalone bill dealing with one recommendation out of a number of recommendations, similar to what we have just talked about—the fact that we have about six recommendations the Hon. Tung Ngo referred to.

When the government briefed me on the education bill, they said, 'Well, this is not contentious at all and we support it in principle', just like they do this issue, 'so let's get this out of the way before the end of the year so we can get cracking and get on with the work of getting it implemented, getting this part of it done'. It seems that when it suits the government's agenda and flexibility in terms of getting something that is non-contentious, that they support in principle like they did with the education bill, they are quite happy to deal with one recommendation on its own and then deal with all those other recommendations that might be a little bit more prickly in another piece of legislation.

It is a shame that we have a bill here which meets the brief of what the government has supported in principle and, rather than wasting this parliament's time and valuable resources that go into drafting, we do not adopt the same approach as we are doing on the education bill and say, 'Let's get this one done now and we'll get back to the drawing board in relation to those other six recommendations that we have to put a bit more work into.'

The contribution given on the part of the government is completely at odds with the justification for dealing with that education bill that was put to me only two days ago. Notwithstanding, that is not the reason I am supporting this bill: I support this bill in principle and in full. I am happy to support this bill and see its passage through this place, rather than having to wait for this component of it to be dealt with in another bill, which, let us be frank, Ms Franks, we are not going to see this side of an election. That is the reality of it, but we can waste the resources of this place during the next term when the government picks up the bill by the Hon. Tammy Franks, puts it in its own bill and presents it to this place. I thank the Hon. Tammy Franks for bringing this issue again to this place, and I thank the Hon. Tung Ngo for his very timely reminder of our priorities.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (17:11): I rise to indicate the opposition's position on this bill presented by the Hon. Ms Franks. In truth, our position largely mirrors that of the government. The bill seeks to amend the Freedom of Information Act 1991 to include the greyhound racing controlling authority, currently Greyhound Racing SA, as an agency for the purposes of the act. On 30 November 2023 an independent inquiry report was handed down, and it reported into the governance of the greyhound racing industry and was released on that day. The inquiry made a total of some 86 recommendations—a large number of recommendations, all of which were to be implemented by Greyhound Racing SA within two years if the industry is to continue operating in South Australia.

That is quite a significant carrot and stick, I guess, for the industry. But, getting to the nub of it, it is recommendation 13 that I understand was proposed by the Animal Justice Party, namely, to:

Amend freedom of information legislation to ensure that there are no exemptions applicable to the racing industry.

That was adopted by the inquiry and accepted in principle, as I understand it, by the state government as part of one of those 86 recommendations. Despite this, I note that the government has opposed past attempts to define the racing controlling authority for greyhound racing as an agency under the act, so that is a change. It is noteworthy that the Greyhound Industry Reform Inspector was appointed on 8 May last year in order to review and implement the remaining recommendations handed down in that review, to work through them, if you like. In light of that situation as it stands, the opposition considers that it is in the best interests of the industry to allow the inspector to methodically work through these recommendations on a one by one, or case by case, basis, rather than bills being brought to individually do so. As such, our position is that we will not support the bill at this time.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:13): I rise to thank those speakers who have made a contribution: the Hon. Tung Ngo, the Hon. Dennis Hood and the Hon. Connie Bonaros. This is the third time since the Ashton Review recommendations were accepted by the government in principle that we have tested their resolve to implement a freedom of information application to greyhound racing in this state in practise.

'In principle' does not help the dogs. 'In principle' does not really mean anything, and I would perhaps suggest voters who might vote for the Labor Party next time in the election in principle perhaps put their vote somewhere else if they actually want action on animal welfare in this state. I seek leave at this point, noting that the time is short, to table a document entitled 'Further reported concerns at the Angle Park Veterinary Clinic'.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: I will not belabour the point, but this is the sort of document that would be revealed through freedom of information requests to GRSA and particularly impacting not just the practices—the unethical, the bullying, the unhygienic, the cruel practices—of this industry but also the bullying of staff at the Greyhounds as Pets program, which is lauded by the government and by GRSA as somehow the good part of this industry. These documents will prove that that tale is a fantasy and that freedom of information restrictions on this industry have no place in this parliament.

I hope the government will take on board, again and again, that they have been lied to by this industry that everything has been cleaned up—it has not. Previously, Premier Malinauskas was quite incensed that he had been lied to by this industry and that is in fact what sparked, in the end, the Ashton review. That Ashton review confirmed what many have said in the animal welfare sector for many decades, that this is an industry that does not deserve a social licence. It has been given two years to clean up its act by the Ashton review. That was accepted in principle by the Malinauskas government.

The GIRI (Greyhound Industry Reform Inspector) was indeed appointed in May, as the Hon. Dennis Hood reflected, but did not start until July, as the Hon. Connie Bonaros noted, and in fact that gets us beyond the next election period. Just tidily, that two-year clock did not start ticking in December 2023, it did not start ticking in Easter 2024, it only started ticking in July 2024, which of course gets us well beyond the next state election. So, as I say, I hope voters support the Labor Party's position on greyhound racing in principle at the ballot booth and actually vote for politicians who will do something about the animal welfare needs of this state and actually make Labor keep their promises for a change.

I will be dividing on this because I think the people of South Australia need to see that Minister Hildyard then—because we are now three ministers into this particular portfolio under the regime of the GIRI—and Premier Malinauskas in December 2023 did a massive press conference and pledged that they would accept all of the recommendations and ensure that they were implemented.

This is the third chance that the Malinauskas government has had to vote on implementing what is the AJP recommendation No. 13, which was accepted by Mr Ashton; that is: amend freedom of information legislation to ensure that there are no exemptions applicable to the racing industry. This will be the third time the Malinauskas government will have breached that promise to the people of South Australia and we want to see the numbers in the Hansard recorded to reflect that.

The council divided on the second reading:

Ayes 3

Noes 14

Majority 11

AYES

NOES

Second reading thus negatived.