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5.
New
Queensland Racing Bill passed
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01/11/2002 |
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The
Racing Bill 2002 passed by Queensland Parliament provides new impetus to the
Racing Industry to modernise, Racing Minister Merri Rose said today.
Ms Rose said the Bill replaced the outdated Racing and Betting Act 1980 and was
a great step forward for the Queensland Racing Industry.
“I was heartened to see the Opposition support for this Bill, as it has become
obvious there is need for a modernisation of the industry’s operating
environment,” the Minister said.
“The Government has worked with the industry to bring about reform of the
governance structures for the industry control bodies.”
Ms Rose said the Bill would help maintain public confidence in the industry by
ensuring the integrity of all persons involved and the welfare of the animals.
“It is integral to the racing industry to maintain public confidence and
ensure there are processes in place to deal with scandals, like those that
occurred during the 1980s,” she said.
“The Bill makes a control body responsible for regulating and managing its
code of racing, including the licensing of clubs, participants, animals,
bookmakers and venues for each code."
“The Bill also gives the Government the ability to take remedial action should
a control body not be living up to its regulatory responsibilities.”
Ms Rose said the Bill provided the commercial framework the industry required if
it was to fulfil its potential.
“The Bill does not affect the day to day operations of the racing industry,
that is, the hard work that trainers, jockeys and strappers put in every day to
prepare animals to race,” she said.
“The Racing Industry is in a very competitive operating environment so it
needs to get past the methods of yesteryear and ready itself for the future.”
Ms Rose said concerns over proprietary racing were nothing more than
scaremongering.
“The Bill does not introduce proprietary racing – it is not even supportive
of proprietary racing – but removes legislative impediments to the industry
examining all of the options in the modern business context,” she said.
“This Bill will enable codes of racing to examine all options of encouraging
investment, provided they meet the probity and integrity standards required of
the current systems.
Talk of 1930s-style proprietary racing is hysterical scaremongering and has no
place in the modern industry environment.”
Ms Rose said the Bill provided a mechanism for the licensing of control bodies
and codes of racing other than the three current bodies - the Queensland
Thoroughbred Racing Board (QTRB), the Queensland Harness Racing Board (QHRB) and
the Greyhound Racing Authority (GRA).
“For some time now, there has been interest from people who would like to race
breeds of animals other than the current thoroughbred, standardbred and
greyhound,” she said.
“The Bill allows a corporation to apply to the Minister to develop further
codes of racing and there will be a stringent licensing process to ensure they
meet required levels of probity and integrity.”
Queensland Racing Minister's Press Release.
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