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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-06 Daily Xml
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Animal Welfare (Jumps Racing) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (11:14): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in favour of this piece of legislation that has come down from the upper house with broad, if not universal, support. What this legislation does is to create certainty for an industry that has had a degree of uncertainty and, one might say, a bit of internal turmoil in determining what it wants to do about the sport of jumps racing. The industry itself has made the decision as a whole, if not in uniformity, to desist from offering jumps racing in South Australia.

In so doing, it joins all other jurisdictions but Victoria. Queensland, in fact, stopped in 1903; Western Australia in 1941; New South Wales banned the practice through legislation—the only other state to ban it through legislation—in 1997; Tasmania in 2007; and last year Racing SA made the decision that it would no longer continue to offer jumps racing events. There was, as I understand it, a Senate committee held in 1991 that recommended a phase-out and I suppose, apart from Victoria, this is the last of those stages of phase-out.

There are multiple reasons why this is an appropriate step to take, albeit one that needs to be taken carefully and with due consideration. It is not lightly that a parliament moves to ban an activity, even if that activity has already ceased to exist voluntarily. Reasons that this has been suggested as a sport that no longer has a place—and indeed, the reasons that Racing SA gives for no longer offering the sport itself—are financial, economic and logistical reasons. When Racing SA made the announcement last year, they said:

Despite the efforts of all industry stakeholders to maintain a jumps racing program in SA, declining participation levels and horse numbers have made the industry unsustainable and unworkable.

Racing SA's current data shows that there are fewer than 10 jumps horses currently in South Australia compared with more than 2,400 registered thoroughbreds across the state. A total of 12 jumps races were held in 2020 to 2021, with field sizes falling to fewer than five horses per race. This compares with the growth being experienced in flat races, where field sizes grew to an average of 9.7 runners.

As I understand it, usually the prize that is offered does not cover the cost of training, and the majority of owners have been making a loss for a substantial period of time. Further, I understand that there are currently no jumps racing jockeys who reside in South Australia. It seems that this is a sport that has essentially moved on already.

There is an argument that goes to the question of whether jumps racing is a natural activity for horses, and I accept that there will be multiple sides of that debate. I refer to the University of Sydney's Dr McGreevy who has suggested—and I am paraphrasing rather than explicitly quoting—that wild horses jump only when it is unavoidable and when they are fleeing danger. The University of Kentucky's Dr Tobin has argued that the bone structure of horses is not designed for the kind of activity required by jumps racing, which is frequent jumping over a prolonged period of time. This may explain why there has been a growing chorus of people regarding jumps racing as a cruel activity with unacceptable injuries.

The RSPCA, I think, have best summarised the case on that front in their most recent correspondence with me, and I imagine with other members of parliament. They have undertaken a study of the activity of jumps racing in Victoria in the most recent season, responding to the argument that has been rehearsed occasionally here, not only in the media but in the other place in debating this very bill, that jumps racing has been made safer through a new version of hurdles.

Looking at the stewards' reports for all the jumps race programs in Victoria this year, twice as many horses bumped or collided with other horses in jumps racing compared with flat races, four times more horses and jockeys fell in jumps races than in flat races, three times more horses were injured in jumps than flats and twice as many horses bled from the lungs following jumps races due to overexertion than in flat races. Indeed, there were 12 jumps races held in Victoria and there were 12 horses that fell—so an average of one per race, although I believe that in some cases there was more than one in a race.

Four per cent of horses fell in jumps races in that period, with no horses falling in flat races. Twelve per cent of horses sustained injuries in jumps racing, compared with only 4 per cent in flat races. That argues for a concern on animal welfare grounds. So, too, does it argue that the reason it has become unsustainable is that the public in general has decided that this is not a sport they wish to view and has therefore contributed to the sustainability.

I would like to quote from a speech that, although delivered by the Hon. Connie Bonaros, I believe was written on behalf of the Hon. Frank Pangallo, who was not able to attend the debate in the other place at the time. She said:

Since 2009, there have been 19 reported deaths as a result of jumps racing in South Australia. In more recent times, at Oakbank's replacement meeting at Pakenham in April, where not one South Australian trainer was represented at the meeting, three horses fell and an additional four had to be retired from the race, meaning…14 per cent of horses failed to finish…

At the recent Warrnambool May Racing Carnival, the biggest jumps carnival in Australia where, again, not one South Australian trainer was represented in jumps events, four horses fell and…three had to be retired…meaning seven out of 70, or 10 per cent, of horses failed to finish.

There is a clear concern observed from the facts that there are more risks for horses and, indeed, for jockeys through jumps racing, and it is likely that the public response to that has led to this decline in the industry being sustainable in any way. While it is difficult to agree to ban a sport—to ban an industry may be overstating it, given that there are only 10 horses and the events have already stopped—it is something that I believe this parliament should do in all good conscience in order to create certainty for the industry.

The reputational harm of jumps racing is one reason, I believe, that Racing SA have decided that they need to step away from jumps racing; that people in observing jumps racing can be forgiven for thinking that that represents the risk for all racing, which it simply does not; and that certainty will probably assist a number of people in the industry who are concerned about the rolling internal turmoil that has been occurring over the last several months; indeed, I have had much representation to that effect.

In summary, this bill not only creates certainty and is consistent with what is clearly the position of the majority of the public, and is consistent with the position that the industry has taken, but it is not stopping anything that is occurring currently. It is not occurring for reasons that the racing industry has been very clear to articulate.

It is in this legislation, however, very clear that we are not attempting to prevent and will not prevent any training to occur. If there is training that is occurring—I imagine particularly in the South-East, but not exclusively—that might go over the border for participation in events in Victoria, that is of course okay. It is also as explicit that other events that involve some jumps, including showjumping, equestrian eventing, cross-country and so on, will not be prevented, nor, too, will the activity of publishing the information about the racing and advertising jumps racing occurring interstate. All this does is confirm the position already taken by Racing SA that there will be no more jumps racing.

In closing, I would like to congratulate the Hon. Tammy Franks on having persisted in bringing this legislation forward on multiple occasions. I would like to thank my caucus in supporting that we might make this decision to be consistent with animal welfare standards, with what the industry wants and with what the public expects. I commend the bill to this house.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Odenwalder.

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