Barnaby Joyce speaks out against planned greyhound ban in NSW

DEPUTY Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has slammed NSW’s greyhound ban — heaping pressure on Nationals Leader Troy Grant and Premier Mike Baird to reverse the unpopular decision.

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DEPUTY Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has slammed NSW’s greyhound ban — heaping pressure on Nationals Leader Troy Grant and Premier Mike Baird to reverse the controversial and unpopular decision.

“I support the live cattle trade so I’m always naturally enough very sceptical — I try to stay away from banning anything,” said Mr Joyce, the federal Nationals Leader.

“If you start banning things you start hurting people you didn’t expect to hurt.

Barnaby Joyce has spoken out against the NSW greyhound ban.

“It’s best to try and work with the industry and get them to sort out their problems. And that’s going to cause me grief saying that because people will say you’re talking about your colleagues.”

A series of Nationals politicians, at state and federal level, have come out against the greyhound ban, due to start from next year.

MPs and industry figures have called for greyhound racing to be given a further 12 months to implement reform.

It comes after former High Court judge Michael McHugh’s scathing report on the industry, which found that up to 68,500 dogs died over 12 years because they weren’t up to scratch.

Mr Joyce admitted he had not read the report and does not intend to.

“But I know a lot of people own greyhounds and they are decent people. They’re probably doing it a bit tough.

“If there’s a way around this I think we should find it.”

Mr Joyce said his father used to work as a vet at greyhound tracks and the sport should be regulated, monitored – and those found doing the wrong thing punished severely.

“There’s a lot of people who just can’t afford to be in the race horse industry, it’s very expensive, but they can afford to own a dish licker,” the Deputy PM continued.

The future of greyhound racing in NSW is under a cloud. Picture: Jason O'Brien

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“And that gives them an opportunity to be at the track. It’s not the top end of town, the greyhound track, it’s the bottom.

“You’ve got to be a little bit careful about jumping into a section of their life – because it’s their life, it’s their rights.

The Baird government will have to rely on the support of the Greens and Animal Justice MP Mark Pearson to get its ban through Parliament.

Mr Joyce was scathing of the Greens and said they wanted to ban “rodeos, ban the live cattle trade, ultimately they’ve got a thing against people who eat meat.

“They think animals are people and people are animals,” Mr Joyce added.

“Watch out getting too close to them because you’ll end up in misery gully. Where they end up is crazy enough.”

Premier Mike Baird last night remained defiant on the greyhound ban, despite wavering support from Nationals MPs.

“During the next sitting session the Government will introduce legislation in Parliament to shut down the greyhound racing industry on 1 July 2017,” a spokesman for the Premier said.

“We believe any reasonable, objective and humane person who reads the report by Mr McHugh will support this decision.”