Tim Andrews fumes as greyhound ban bill rushed through
THE Australian Taxpayers' Alliance has slammed the New South Wales Government for its decision to rush its proposed ban on greyhound racing through the NSW Legislative Council without notice or an opportunity for scrutiny.
The condemnation comes after the Baird Government teamed with the Australian Greens to ensure it was successful in moving a motion to table the Greyhound Racing Prohibition Bill 2016 after the opposition was afforded just 10 minutes to read the bill.
Ordinarily, five calendar days of notice is given to councillors to read and understand the bill, however in this case the bill was only distributed at 10:50am – with the Council commencing its sitting at 11am.
Tim Andrews, the Executive Director of the Australian Taxpayers' Alliance, was scathing of the back-door move by the Baird government to ensure the ban comes into force.
“This is an unprecedented and outrageous attack on fundamental democratic principles” Andrews said in a statement.
“The bill comprises 28 pages of complex legislation, which our elected representatives were expected to read and analyse in barely 10 minutes. Not only is this unreasonable, it contravenes basic principles of transparency and accountability which are crucial to the functioning of any representative democracy.”
Andrews said the timeframe given to Councillors to view the bill were unsatisfactory for such a monumental decision.
“Members of the Legislative Council are expected to fully read and understand legislation before its introduction into parliament.
“This is particularly vital where the legislation has the effect of abolishing a $335 million dollar industry that provides employment to thousands of New South Wales residents and which is a crucial cultural cornerstone of many regional communities.
“This decision should never have been made in such a knee-jerk manner without proper public consultation.
“Furthermore, the media has reported severe defects in the McHugh report upon which the Government premised its decision including statistical flaws, miscalculations and misuse of data as well as reliance upon information of questionable relevance such as an incident reported in the United States over 15 years ago which was given prominence in the report.
“It is the height of irresponsibility to rush legislation through without the opportunity to scrutinise such claims.”
“When becoming Premier, Mr Baird promised to govern with liberal values and to uphold the basic principles of democracy.
“Sadly, the decision to stifle scrutiny and debate over the Greyhound Racing Prohibition Bill 2016 demonstrates that he has failed to live up to this task.”
Also condemning the move is Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery, who told Fairfax that Premier Baird was trying to avoid igniting a heated debate in the lower house.
“Urgent Notices of Motion being introduced to the Upper House has usually been reserved for extreme issues such as legislation for terrorism and the like,” she said.
“The Baird Government is determined to sidestep due process today by introducing legislation which will ignore a significant section of our community.”
Hornery has recently collected over 37,000 hand written signatures in support of the industry which was expected to be debated in parliament on Thursday, however it now appears the legislation may be passed prior to then.
Mike Baird and his actions are causing many people to hate his guts with a passion. On this single issue he is dividing the community to such an extent that, in my humble opinion, it is not good for our society in general.
was defeated 21 to 13. have no idea what happens next. hard to get an insight on what that means.
This is unprecedented Bastardry. The frustration with the maneouvre adopted by the Government will resonate loud and clear throughout the State and somewhere along the way, Baird and his cohorts will pay.
BJoe apparently Baird and Abbott are friends. Tony made a few stupid captain’s calls and he is now out in the wilderness bitter and pissed off -we can always hope for the same fate for his mate Mike. Great to see a few people who are not directly involved in greyhound racing recognising this as an affront to democracy and very brave of the two mentioned above to get into the debate.
The Bill was passed in the upper house this evening per this news http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-11/greyhound-racing-ban-bill-passed-by-nsw-upper-house/7718580
Now it’s the turn for lower house to debate.
Legal challenge over the bill is the solution as clearly the Greens/LNP in NSW believe they are above the law.
10 minutes to read the bill when they are normally given 5 days. Rushed through with powers designed for extremely urgent decisions. Baird has to be kidding, he does not want people to embarrass him, he does it to himself. Could there be a challenge under the Constitution of Australia? Think so.
……………..BAIRD HAS LOST HIS MARBLES…………….. one surmises that when a person,in this case PREMIER BAIRD, continually makes undemocratic decisions like he is,not only greyhound closure either,and refuses to listen to his constituents,he is signing his own demise. only one person in this world is as mental and egotistic as BAIRD and that his is idol,KIM UN. I wonder if they shared a room at university together? well, at the rate he is destroying his own state,he will never survive another election.(maybe in his own mind he says who gives a stuff)and those in his own party,and those parties in bed… Read more »
Prompts to Parliament procedure 1 Parliamentary Hansard prompt 2. Ist and Second Reading urgent mention passed, 5 day grace between Mention and second reading reduced to one hour on the same day. Go to the act box on the second prompt, four entries will come up for the Greyhound Bill, the first and the second reference are the copy and proof of the same thing and so is the next debate 3rd entry and the fourth is the proof, (you only need to read each second entry. Today 11th The Minister has to reply to petition and there is the… Read more »
dogem53 Hi dogem53 I have put the details you were asking for above, did not realise you were not from NSW. Let me know if the prompts don’t make the situation clear because I need to market test how to introduce the subject to the country clubs.
GeoffWilson Spot on. There is going something going on that we are not assessing at the moment and it will come out. The Government is far too desperate to be safe, it must be something beyond the Premier’s ego. Plenty of people are starting to talk about other alternatives but I will wait until things become more obvious before commenting further.
Deborah555 BJoe These measures are only used when Governments are in desperate trouble, it will all come out.
CRAZYCRAW Steve can you attend the Country Clubs Association annual meeting at Wentworth Park on 23rd August (Tuesday) one of the rural clubs needs a second delegate and I recommended they approach you.
Cheers
Apparently dumpy frumpy political opportunist greens candidate (appointed not elected) Mehreen Farqui was very vocal about the government being allowed to sell off crown land (presumably Wentworth Park) claiming if the government did not have the right to sell off crown land the labour party would use it to re introduce racing. Yes very protective about the government being able to sell off land quickly. I asked her about it and she claimed “she just loves greyhounds” and yeah we believe you Mehreen.
I had a bit of fun with Scot MacDonald this morning who claimed during the debate that the greyhound industry had been laughing in their faces for 15 years. I suggested it was highly unlikely that anyone had laughed at him nobody has ever heard of him, in fact this was the first time I had ever seen him mentioned in the press. He was apparently offended and sent me an information link on mental health issues. I suggested this was a most unusual political response most politicians respond to my emails with an intelligent discourse or something polite and… Read more »
John Tracey GeoffWilson there needs to be a spill in the Nats. Even an unsuccessful one will slow things down and bring more scrutiny to procedure protocol and ethics
John Tracey excellent john as usual. very able to follow that procedure.
GeoffWilson Geoff, are we being invaded or terrorised? I am lead to believe that type of tactic is used in situations like that. done now,not much can be achieved,but we need to alert other states that they will come for sure. no matter what any states greyhound h/quarters tell you,it is what deals occur inside parliament that has the bearing on the outcome.this is definite proof of the seedy world within. ever get the feeling people we have no meaning in this life. we are just ants doing work to enrich the rich. I have lasted 63 years so far,… Read more »
Deborah555 Deborah, this might help Put a complaint into is office and state that he needs to know
that a staff member is sneding infromation leaks to constitutants.
I note that you are a decent chap and have made up with the Greens (stanist party) who dobbed you into ICAC in 2012.
You had the numbers in the parliament so why were you deaminising contry people. No one laughs at class traitors.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/liberal-mp-accused-of-taking-gifts-from-coal-seam-gas-company-20121031-28lev.html
John Tracey Deborah555 What was funny John was that I had been chatting with another pollie who shall remain nameless and they are a class act and then this bloke replied I could not believe the constant it was staggering. Yes we certainly have a diverse crew down there now. Thanks for the other advice.
John Tracey Deborah555 I had a read of that article John very interesting almost same speech only substitute coal gas for greyhounds and instead of quickly move forward substitute quickly destroy. Yes they obviously have made up- there are some interesting bedfellows (politically speaking of course) at the moment.
John Tracey I meant contrast.
So it took 15 years for him to wake up to the fact people that was laughing in their faces ! how diligent is he, it was their rules we’ re playing by .
BobWhitelaw Bob it was really funny he was really pissed off I have never had a pollie carry on like that. I mean what sort of a pollie tells some elderly lady not to bully him after they have sent a brief email. Yes he was a most unusual man and I couldn’t help myself once I realised I had a live one. I upset another one this morning when I suggested he had sold his country electorate out by selling out to the animal activists- that touched a nerve so the Nationals must be getting the idea that all… Read more »
This Scott MacDonald is another one of Baird Lackie who pretends to looking after the Hunter for his gutless leader,Baird unloaded the Port of Newcastle for 99 years for billions , this GRUB has just put on the table .4 million and asking groups in the hunter, central coast, newcastle to apply for funding and share it..What a miserable Bastard LOL
BobWhitelaw Yes and apparently the people of Newcastle are not exactly pleased about it. He was in bed with the gas people and now back in bed with the greens very flexible.