QUEENSLAND’s Thoroughbred breeders have launched a scathing attack on the Palaszczuk Government and the industry’s governing body Racing Queensland saying the actions of both have doomed the industry to failure.
In a stinging rebuke of the Palaszczuk Govenment’s overall management of the industry, Thoroughbed Breeders Queensland Association president Basil Nolan said recently released Tracking Towards Sustainability Plan was not a sustainable plan for the long-term future of racing.
“We are tracking towards certain doom,” Mr Nolan said.
“Racing Queensland has just taken the lazy way out, by deducting prizemoney and slashing country racing.”
Mr Nolan said the Queensland Government’s recently released Sustainability Plan did not outline how the industry will move forward from these cutbacks.
“All it will achieve will be an exodus of owners and trainers, resulting in an ongoing downturn in wagering and revenue,” he said.
“The industry is on a downward spiral because decisions are being made by people who have no idea about racing, thanks to the failings of a Government that has no interest in the industry.
“To start with, to take $70,000 a day off Saturday metropolitan racing is absolutely absurd; while also decimating the country areas, many of which rely heavily on racing for their livelihoods and the social fabric of their communities.”
Mr Nolan said that instead of taking the easy road of deducting prizemoney and axing race meetings, RQ should be focusing on a marketing plan that will increase participation, wagering and revenue.
“Taking prizemoney away while increasing fees is simply alienating owners and trainers, while a top-heavy Racing Queensland interim management team lines their own pockets.”
Mr Nolan said an example of the mindset of QR was the Breeders Bonus had been taken from the Queensland Thoroughbred Incentive Scheme (QTIS), which has also been cutback considerably.
“This Breeders Bonus was a new implementation where stallion owners were contributing a sizeable amount to virtually self-fund the bonus,” Mr Nolan said.
“Those funds had been collected by the TBQA at the start of this year and were ready for distribution.
“This was raised with Declan Martschinke, the head of operations at Racing Queensland, and he said that RQ didn’t want the contribution from stallion owners, and then they went ahead and scrapped the bonus.”
Mr Nolan said the performance of wagering company UBet was attacked at every consultation meeting he attended.
“UBet’s performance was attacked because they aren’t performing up to expectations and this is the industry’s main source of revenue; 6.5 per cent comes back from wagering to revenue,” Mr Nolan said.
“The corporate bookmakers have gone ahead in leaps and bounds and the industry only gets 2pc of that investment. But these corporate bookmakers haven’t been audited in the past six months since Labor came to term and sacked the previous RQ Board.”
Mr Nolan said RQ was made aware of this matter but had failed to do anything about it.
He said he was once again calling on RQ and the State Government to make public a detailed breakdown of the projections that supposedly show a loss of $28 million, along with the exact costs to run Racing Queensland.
“This $28m figure seems to have appeared from mid-air on day one of the RQ takeover,” Mr Nolan said.
“RQ management simply tell us that their financial controller who has since left RQ provided this figure and they’re sticking with it.
“Yet the audit at the end of the financial year showed a loss of $2m, so how they arrive at $28m is beyond comprehension - and at the five consultation meetings I attended, they were never able to verify that figure!”
“It’s about time they were held accountable.”
Mr Nolan is also furious about the complete ignorance towards the many issues and ideas raised during the so-called ‘consultation’ process.
“This consultation was a complete waste of time and money,” he said. “I don’t think they were ever interested in what participants had to say, this was simply a smokescreen for an already planned agenda.
“Then added to the debacle, we’re appointed a new Racing Minister who has absolutely no knowledge of racing or interest in the industry, right in the wake of this Plan’s release.
“It is absolutely disgraceful and a slap in the face to every stakeholder. Clearly Labor has no consideration for racing, and is completely ignorant of what could be achieved economically if it were able to thrive.
“The State Government obviously needs to be reminded that racing employs over 30,000 people and supports thousands more through association. It is the third largest industry in the State, and could be even stronger with the right direction, especially with the downturn in the resource sector.”
Mr Nolan said Queensland Racing had become little more than a three-ringed circus since Labor came to power and sacked Kevin Dixon, Peter Boyce and Mike Kelly under the guise of the greyhound live-baiting scandal.
“We all know that sacking was just political games,” Mr Nolan said. “These three men were the best and most progressive RQ Board that Queensland had ever seen..
“They all have a wealth of experience in the racing industry and are astute business men. They are the top of their fields and have been involved with extremely successful multi-million dollar international companies. They had a long term plan that was going to take Queensland forward and the Labor Government should have stuck with it.”
Mr Nolan said there is now absolutely no leadership, they have no idea of growing the industry and there has been nothing positive to come out of RQ or the State Government to encourage people to partake in this wonderful industry.
“Now, instead of celebrating the progress that had been made just 12 months ago, participants will be rallying together to fight for its survival,” Mr Nolan said.
“The interim chief executive officer Ian Hall and the Labor Government have failed dismally.”
