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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-10-29 Daily Xml
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Thoroughbred Racehorse Industry

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:34): I rise to speak today on something that a few people have spoken about in the past two weeks in political circles, in the media and in the racing industry, and that is the exposé on the ABC's 7.30 Report about the deaths of thoroughbred racehorses at abattoirs in New South Wales and Queensland. Anyone who watched that program would know just how horrendous it was. It was sickening, and to believe that it was happening in our country is nothing short of scary.

We have heard the Queensland government announce an immediate inquiry into what happened there, and the day after we heard the Victorian government say that there needs to be a national register of racehorses from foal through to end of life. We have heard horse trainers around Australia say that they were sickened by it, but we have seen very little in the media here in South Australia, and we have heard very little, if anything, from Thoroughbred Racing SA or the government in South Australia about what needs to happen.

We do not know that, because something happened in Queensland and New South Wales, there is anything happening here, but if we go back a few years when another ABC exposé was aired on Four Corners about the greyhound racing industry we know how terrible that was. Within two or three days of that being aired the then environment minister, the Hon. Ian Hunter, and I organised a meeting where we had senior police, the RSPCA and the greyhound racing industry sit around the table.

We were fairly secure in the knowledge that nothing was happening here in South Australia like we had seen in other states on the Four Corners program, but what we needed to do as a government—working with the industry and those who have animal welfare responsibilities outside of government—was reassure those who were interested in the industry and those who were interested in the welfare of animals that that cruelty was not happening here.

What I am worried about here is this vacuum that we have had in South Australia in the past two weeks from pretty much everyone about the inhumane and cruel treatment we have seen of animals. As someone who has been around horse racing all my life I know that probably 99.9 per cent of people love their horses and do the right thing by them. However, I think what we need to have is some sort of inquiry.

I like to have a punt—and not just on next week's Melbourne Cup, but I like to have a bet at Strath, Kangaroo Island, Balaklava and Murray Bridge—but I was so sickened by those images that I did not have a bet on the Caulfield Cup, and I have not had a bet since. We need to be reassured as fans of the industry that our industry here in South Australia is above reproach and that none of those things that we saw happening on the 7.30 Report are indeed happening here in South Australia.

For the sake of the industry and for the sake of those people who support the industry, I would like to see the relevant ministers here, the environment minister and the racing minister—and I put no blame on them or anyone in the racing industry in South Australia in terms of anything that may or may not be happening in South Australia's racing industry—have some sort of inquiry and get people around the table, as we did with the greyhound racing industry, to make sure that everything is above board.

The Victorian government and Racing Victoria have come out with a very detailed, comprehensive response. They have set up a $25 million fund for equine welfare. Everyone who goes to the races in Victoria will now have a 10 per cent clip on their ticket to go into a $1 million fund for equine welfare, and those who are members of racing clubs will pay 5 per cent into an equine welfare fund as well.

I think all these things are being done in other parts of Australia, but for some reason we do not want to talk about it here. I think we need to talk about it. I think punters need reassurance. The industry needs to back itself and explain to people that things are indeed above board in South Australia.

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