NSW Premier quashes talk of greyhound racing shutdown
NSW Premier Chris Minns has declared that his government will not be moving to shut down greyhound racing in the state.
This comes despite renewed calls from animal welfare activists to scrap the industry following the resignation of Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) chief executive Rob Macaulay on Tuesday.
Macaulay’s departure was confirmed on the same day that the state parliament addressed a damning 54-page complaint from GRNSW’s former chief vet Alex Brittan.
In a document addressed to GRNSW, Brittan claimed that the industry was “unsustainable” and the governing body was concealing greyhound deaths from the public and inflating adoption rates for retired racing dogs, among other alleged ethical violations.
When asked about the revelations on Wednesday, Minns told reporters that banning greyhound racing in NSW was not on the agenda.
“Look, we’re not going to shut down the industry but we do take this report seriously,” he said.
“And I know that it’s the minister [who] is assessing the criticisms… they’ll be investigated, they’ll be fully investigated.”
Earlier on Wednesday, NSW Racing Minister David Harris revealed that all directors on the GRNSW board had been issued show-cause notices.