Political stupidity kills the job of Racing NSW boss Russell Balding

The Coalition has been slammed for forcing the Labor government to scrap plans to extend the term of popular NSW racing chairman Russell Balding.

Russell Balding will step down as chairman of NSW Racing. Picture: Toby Zerna

Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro says the Coalition made a mess of things by forcing the state government to scrap plans to extend the term of popular racing NSW chairman Russell Balding.

“It just seems that politics got in front of pragmatism and you end up losing a very good chairman,” Mr Barilaro told the Saturday Telegraph after the Coalition, led by Upper House Leader Damien Tudehope, voted with the Greens and Animal Justice to make Racing NSW subject to scrutiny from parliament and oversight by the Auditor General.

The legislation was ultimately shelved with Labor unwilling to impose more red tape on the racing body, which will now have to find a new chairman in the coming weeks with Mr Balding’s term to expire mid-December.

“They made a mess of what was very simple,” Mr Barilaro said.

Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro. Picture: John Feder/The Daily Telegraph.

“Sometimes it is politics, the silly season, final two weeks sitting, late nights, legislation gets thrown up very late and often the silly season kicks in.

“You lose all sense of reality and pragmatism. Politics of the day gets in … and in the end we ended with a bad outcome and are losing a good leader in the racing industry.

“You don’t have to be Einstein to realise they have done a wonderful job to get racing in this state in the limelight, it really has trumped Victoria Racing.

“If someone said to you we would have races that trump the Melbourne Cup no one would believe you and yet this leadership team has done exactly that.”

Australian Turf Club Board chairman Peter McGauran said he was “bewildered” and disappointed”.

“Unfortunately a small cohort within the racing and breeding industry waged a war against Russell for their own reasons,” Mr McGauran said.

“The Liberal Party was stupid enough to put a break on the highly successful chairman of an administration that has taken racing in Sydney and NSW to unimagined levels.”

Mr McGauran said that in 25 years in federal parliament as part of the Coalition, he had “never seen anything as dumb and illogical as this”.

“NSW is the most envied racing jurisdiction in the world, it pays one million more per week in prize money than Victoria and the beneficiaries are industry participants and punters.”

Liberal MP and former Cabinet minister Anthony Roberts has slammed MPs who failed to support Mr Balding’s bid to stay on in the job, saying “the only winner here is going to be Victoria”.

“Racing NSW is probably the most highly regulated industry – outside of pharmaceuticals – in the nation,” he said.

“The Racing NSW leadership has put NSW at the forefront of racing in the country. It brings $3.36 billion to the economy, 90,000 jobs. When you have a successful team, why would you want to throw a spanner into the engine?”

NSW Premier Chris Minns accused the Coalition of not being “straight up” in its approach to the legislation.

“The opposition in my view inserted a poison pill in the legislation so that parliament wouldn’t pass it and they could sink the bill without going on the record against the extension of Mr Balding’s tenure,” he said on Friday.

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