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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-06-08 Daily Xml
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ANIMAL WELFARE (JUMPS RACING) AMENDMENT BILL

Introduction and First Reading

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:56): Obtained leave and introduced a bill for an act to amend the Animal Welfare Act 1985. Read a first time.

Second Reading

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:57): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I am very pleased to introduce this bill today which amends the Animal Welfare Act to ban jumps racing. In 1903 the last jumps races were held in Queensland; in 1941 the last jumps races were held in WA; in 1997 hurdle racing was abolished in New South Wales; and in 2007 the last jumps race was held in Tasmania. I would hope that we can make 2011 the year that South Australia joins the rest of Australia (with the exception of Victoria) in banning jumps racing, and that 2012 will be the last season of jumps racing in this state.

It is time for those of us who have the fortitude to say, 'Enough is enough.' Beneath the public relations hype of glitz and glamour and the glossy tourism brochures promoting the Oakbank Racing Carnival there lies a dark and deadly past and a hidden cost in terms of animal welfare. Jumps racing must go the way of dog fighting and cock fighting—two things that I note are currently banned in this state under the Animal Welfare Act. They should also go the way of bear baiting and fox hunting—outdated and cruel pastimes that have no place in modern civilized society.

South Australia and Victoria stand as the last outposts of this outdated relic. The industry obviously can do without its poor cousin. After all, no-one has suggested that the racing fraternity in New South Wales, Queensland or WA is worse off for not having jumps racing; an offshoot that now, in fact, accounts for less than 1 per cent of all races in Australia. As far as I am aware, there are no full-time jumps jockeys, trainers or stables that are solely focused on jumps racing here in South Australia. Even if there were, there is ample case for them to restructure their operations and focus on the significantly less cruel and safer flats racing.

The 1991 Senate Inquiry into Aspects of Animal Welfare in the Racing Industry studied this issue extensively many, many decades ago. It found that, in relation to jumps racing, fatality and injury rates were unacceptably high. It recommended the following:

Based on evidence received during the inquiry the Committee has serious concerns about the welfare of horses participating in jumps races. These concerns are based on the significant probability of a horse suffering serious injury or even death as a result of participating in these events and, in particular, steeplechasing. This concern is exacerbated by evidence suggesting that even with improvements to the height and placing of jumps, training and education the fatality rate would remain constant. The Committee, therefore, can only conclude that there is an inherent conflict between these activities and animal welfare. Accordingly, the Committee is of the view that relevant state governments should phase out jumps racing over the next three years.

I repeat: that was in 1991. The writing has been on the wall for many decades on this issue, and a look into the facts makes this abundantly clear. There is incontrovertible evidence that the combination of speed and jumping and distance makes jumps racing intrinsically dangerous for the horses. The statistics, in fact, speak for themselves for those horses, of course, that cannot.

A 15-year study into catastrophic injuries in flats and jumps racehorses between 1989 and 2004 was conducted by Dr Lisa Boden and presented at the International Symposium for the Prevention of Thoroughbred Racehorse Fatalities and Injuries in July 2005. In terms of fatalities, there was one death for every 115 horses that start a jumps race. This compares with one death for every 2,150 horses that start in a flats race.

Jumps racing is therefore 18 more times likely to lead to a fatality than a flats race. The same figure holds for catastrophic limb injuries: again, they are 18 times more likely to occur in a jumps race than in a flats race. The figures for cranial or vertebral injuries are even worse: they are 121 times more likely to occur in a jumps race than in a flats race. Sudden death is 3½ times more likely in a jumps race, with most sudden deaths attributed to catastrophic cardiovascular or respiratory failure.

These statistics alone provide clear evidence that jumps horses are pushed far beyond their normal limits and subjected to much greater physical, psychological and physiological stress than flats racehorses. Jumps horses are forced to experience the frightening ordeal of jumping over fixed obstacles for long distances at speed and when fatigued, which interferes with their limb coordination.

Sadly, the litany of horror continues. One in 24 horses that competed in a jumps race was killed on the racetrack. One in 3½ horses sustained an injury that prevented the horse from continuing racing. However, the impacts from jumps racing are not just confined to horses. One in three jockeys received injuries which prevented them from continuing racing. This in turn has led to a workers compensation bill of over $1 million. Far from the situation improving as the practice has come under scrutiny, the reverse has, in fact, occurred. The ratio of falls to starters in steeple racing has increased from 2.8 per cent in 2008 to 5.9 per cent in 2009, and 6.9 per cent in 2010.

'Jumping the gun—a statistical analysis of the profitability and safety of jumps, flats and high weight racing in Victoria' analysed the profitability and safety of jumps, flats and high weight racing in that state from 2008 to 2010. This was undertaken by statisticians Liss Ralston and Dr Nicola Brackertz. They concluded:

Flat races are more economically viable than jumps races as they have consistently higher betting ratios, providing higher returns. For each dollar of prize money offered on a jumps race $2.40 is wagered compared to $9.56 on a flat race. The amount of betting revenue that can be generated from high weight racing is 3.7 times greater than for jumps racing.

It is clear that punters have been demonstrating for some time now with their wallets that they do not support jumps racing, and it is high time for the racing industry and for this state government to also recognise this.

I can only imagine the way some punters feel at a jumps meet event when the green screen comes out and the gun fires. But why would we put animals through such unnecessary cruelty? We have alternatives. Flats racing is more economically viable and more humane than jumps racing. It is high time that the government gave South Australians some credit. We do not want to witness and bet on animal cruelty, falsely labelled as sport.

This year, in fact, has been one of the worst for jumps racing. Horse deaths have occurred at nearly every race in South Australia and at some trials and debacle after disaster has also been witnessed in Victoria. Ray Thomas, chief racing writer from the Daily Telegraph noted:

RSPCA Victoria President Hugh Worth said this week after the death of Shine The Armour in a hurdle race that horses died 'with great frequency' at the Warrnambool jumps carnival. 'Warrnambool, of course, is the killing fields for horses. That's how bad it is..'

Six of eight horses fell in the Grand Annual Steeple at Warrnambool, and a riderless horse jumped a barrier, landing on several spectators just a few months ago. Seven people between the ages of two and 80 were hurt. Two of them had suspected spinal injuries.

One of the more grotesque aspects of this sorry saga was that a horse race continued as the ambulances moved in. Well, if you could call it a horse race. They fell down like nine-pins during the 5500m race. In fact, there were only two...Al Garhood and Awakening Dream were the only horses to jump all 33 fences and complete the course. The other six starters had all fallen. Fortunately, no horses or jockeys were injured.

It might be the last carnival as well. Jumps racing is, in fact, on life support, but nobody has the courage to flip the switch.

The Oakbank Easter Carnival has struggled. Java Star was killed in just the second race of the first day. Three other falls followed over the carnival. Support for this form of racing is evaporating, betting is poor, media interest scant, but racing in general is losing ground by the meeting and has become one of the nation's most inaccessible sports, wasting its market share of wagering to sports betting.

The response from jumps races to suggestions that this pastime should be banned has been brutal and revealing, and it has been revealed by the leading racing writer and a firm anti-jumps racing advocate, Patrick Smith, in TheAustralian. 'A distressed trainer loses his head' is the article by Patrick Smith that I would refer members to read. David Londregan some time ago told Melbourne radio 3AW's breakfast audience that he loved horses. He had been involved with them all of his life and said that he is going to cry when he has to get them put down. He said, 'These people don't realise how well we look after them and how much we love them.' This is from the man who described how he would react if he cannot race his horses in jumps racing. The article states:

He would go about the task thus: 'I ring up the knackery and start shooting straight away and I'll video them, get some shots and send them to Ross—

That should be Rob Hulls, the former Victorian racing minister—

...and all the radical groups against jumping races,' Londregan said. 'And I'll be sending a few heads here and there, too.'

They are not the words that anyone who seriously cares about the humane treatment of animals could sincerely deliver. It is an interesting strategy from that man to try to say, 'Well, if you don't like to see horses die on a jumps racing track, you'll be seeing them die quicker as I kill my horses.'

It has been an interesting straw man in this debate. Certainly, I would point members to not falling for that particular furphy, because RSPCA and many other groups would be willing to take these horses. Websites have been set up in response to that particular comment that was made in Victoria. While it is a wedge to try to drive people who would not like to see any horses die into a splintered campaign, I think you will find that, in fact, the community is overwhelmingly united in its belief that banning jumps races is the way ahead for this state.

His threats, of course, are heartless and vindictive, and they should be dismissed as such. It concerns me that somebody like that is in fact in this profession of jumps racing in such a responsible position. I think his comments were outrageous and uncontrolled, but they acutely expose the contradiction that is jumps racing. On one hand Londregan says he loves his horses, and on the other he tells us he will saw off their heads and send them to the assorted so-called do-gooders. He tells us that jumping horses are royally cared for and fed, yet their trainers prepare them for events, in the case of three horses at the Warrnambool carnival, at which the risk of crashing and dying is dangerously elevated.

The emphasis now on every hurdle and steeple is not who will win but who might die. Jumping is no longer thrilling. It is not a spectator sport—it is a macabre scene. The public now count dead horses like police do bodies in a natural catastrophe. I can tell you that people I associate with who have organised work trips to Oakbank would never do so again until jumps racing is removed from those particular picnic meets. Certainly, I have no quarrel with flats racing; in fact, my mother worked for a racehorse vet, and we grew up around Randwick racecourse. I had the privilege in fact of hanging out with Kingston Town many a time, one of my favourite horses.

My mother and the man she worked for, the racehorse vet, tell a story of the time when there was a jumps race at Randwick and the horse was brought to the nearby vet, just a kilometre from the track in fact, in pain, with tears streaming from its eyes. Of course it had to be put down—it should have been put down on the track. Mum always recounts the story of the anger the vets had with the trainers for putting that horse through those extra minutes of agony in that case. She is a country girl, she loves her horseracing, but she would love to see jumps racing banned. I think she is indicative of where we are in 2011 in South Australia.

It has been decades since the Senate committee advised states that they would have to start looking at banning this so-called sport. It is overwhelmingly apparent to anyone who wants to look at the pages of Adelaidenow or read the letters to the editor that the majority of South Australians do not want jumps racing in this state. It could be a proud day if we were to get rid of this so-called sport. I note to members that the penalties in this bill are in accordance with those for cock and dog fighting. In fact, they have been taken right from those provisions in the Animal Welfare Act and sit in accordance with similar penalties for those practices. There is no way this parliament would oversee that sort of practice in South Australia, and that is why we have laws to ban it.

I urge members to listen to their constituents on this, to realise that this is less than 1 per cent of the industry and that there will not be a profound financial impact, except on a few people who in fact have seen the writing on the wall for some time now. I urge members: keep an open mind, talk to your constituents and take this to your party rooms and caucuses for a real debate. There has been ample evidence presented into the safety of jumps racing dating back many decades, and it is now time for South Australia to catch up with the rest of Australia and ban jumps racing once and for all. This amendment to the Animal Welfare Act will do that, and I commend it to the house.

Debated adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.

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