Greyhound ban: Baird Justice Department brief claims dog owners are largely illiterate

DEPUTY Premier Troy Grant’s chief of staff said the government wanted to disown the transition after the greyhound industry ban and fob it off onto others in one of the damaging greyhound emails tabled in the upper house.

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DEPUTY Premier Troy Grant’s chief of staff said the government wanted to disown the transition after the greyhound industry ban and fob it off onto others in one of the damaging greyhound emails tabled in the upper house.

Asked to comment on the government’s proposed greyhounds ad, Mr Grant’s chief of staff, Alex Bruce, sent an email on July 31 to his office and the Premier’s director of social media, Tony Story, saying: “Disagree. When and if the legislation passes, we won’t [sic] NSW Govt owning transition and will be saying go speak to taskforce, RSPCA etc etc and not us.”

Mr Story also said in an email in July 31: “Can I also just suggest from a social media perspective, I think the ad content needs to run from the Justice Facebook page with a heavy targeted spend this week to get it out there.

“We need to keep this content as government content, not Mike [Baird] or Troy [Grant] content.”

Earlier today it emerged greyhound owners and trainers were cruelly ­insulted by official Baird documents describing them as stupid.

The communications director of Deputy Premier Troy Grant’s Justice Department sent out a “creative brief” for the state government’s greyhound advertising campaign which claims they are largely illiterate.

The patronising document, ­obtained by The Daily Telegraph and penned by the department’s director of strategic communications Catherine Parker, says: “Take into account the intended audience. A large number of the target group potentially have low levels of literacy.”

The document is one of a ­damaging series related to the dog ban that have been released to the NSW Upper House.

Opposition Leader Luke Foley said the tone of the documents confirmed the “elitism” of Premier Baird’s decision to ban dog racing.

In one email, a senior bureaucrat in the Premier’s department criticises the government’s ­electronic ads as being too much like “propaganda”.

Justifying the campaign, a NSW Justice briefing to the department secretary warns dogs are at risk of being killed before the ban comes into effect next year.

Take into account the intended audience. A large number of the target group potentially have low levels of literacy - CATHERINE PARKER

“An urgent marketing campaign is needed to ensure the safety of greyhounds. Both the government’s assistance telephone line and the RSPCA have received calls from industry participants alleging they will surrender, kill or dump greyhounds prior to the industry shutdown.”

Premier Mike Baird’s greyhound ban has proved unpopular with voters / Picture: Adam Ward

An email from Ms Parker to an ad agency says: “Please ensure that your pitch addresses the issue of regional versus metro attitudes ie in regional areas people are more likely to be more accepting of small animal deaths (live baiting) because their lifestyle means they have to kill rabbits etc.”

Another email from Ms Parker to the Premier’s social media adviser Tony Story from August 3 says: “Just FYI that the Facebook comments are mostly negative.”

Opposition Leader Luke Foley said the tone of the documents confirmed the “elitism” of Premier Baird’s decision to ban dog racing.

An excerpt from the ‘creative brief’.

“Mr Baird and Troy Grant have just added insult to injury. Not content with wiping out an entire industry with a Facebook post ... it just shows what they really think of the people whose livelihoods are destroying.”

Ms Parker said last night: “The target audiences are very broad and include the whole of the NSW community, greyhound racing participants, industry stakeholders and animal welfare groups.

“We recognise that within such a large target group there will be a proportion of the community who have low levels of literacy.”