Liberal Party state council to consider funding future for dog racing

Liberal Party faithful will gather in Launceston on Saturday to debate a range of motions, including funding to greyhound racing. Read what’s on their agenda.

Greyhounds Racing generics

The Liberal Party will consider phasing out public funding of greyhound racing in Tasmania and making voting voluntary in all elections for people aged over 80.

The Liberals will hold their annual state council meeting on Saturday and delegates will debate a range of motions including amalgamating Hydro, Tas Networks and Aurora into one entity, holding a parliamentary inquiry into bureaucratic efficiency, reducing copper thefts from work sites and widening the Brooker Highway.

An urgency motion is also expected to be moved calling for the party to adopt a peace plan for the reinstatement of expelled veteran and Clarence mayor Brendan Blomeley.

The Launceston Business branch is calling on the party to phase out funding of greyhound racing and divert about $10m in funding to other sports.

It argues that a statewide EMRS poll last October found 79 per cent of Tasmanians opposed public funding of greyhound racing and only one per cent intended to attend a dog race meeting in 2024.

Tasmanian greyhound racing.

The branch also points to a “record breaking” petition of 13,519 people to parliament urging a rethink of public funding.

“Australia is one of only six countries in the world with commercial dog racing for gambling and profit,” the branch argues.

“It’s all but died out in the USA, its country of origin with just two tracks remaining.

“In 2023, the sector in Tasmania was scandal ridden and seldom out of the headlines.

“Public disgust and adverse media coverage sits alongside routine high deaths and injury rates on the track and a massive re-homing crisis.

“The industry is demonstrably unable to deal with its own waste product.

“Taxpayer funding is demonstrably at odds with community expectations.

“Also relevant is a decline in revenue from greyhound racing to the Tasmanian Government because gambling has largely gone online.”

The Greens have long lobbied for an end to greyhound racing.

The Glenorchy branch wants voting at all levels of government made voluntary for people aged over 80 years.

“An increasing number of elderly voters now suffer from dementia or physical disabilities,” it says.

“In these circumstances the process of voting can be extremely distressful.

“This can also lead to undue influence from third parties on their vote which may not necessarily be what the voter would have wanted.”

A motion to amalgamate three government business enterprises, Hydro, Tas Networks and Aurora, has been put forward by the party’s George Town East Tamar branch.

It says the integration of the three GBEs “could well create savings in the order of several million dollars, reducing the overall cost per unit.”

Federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton will give the key-note speech at a dinner in Launceston on Friday night with state policy, federal policy and organisational motions to be debated on Saturday.

Originally published as Liberal Party state council to consider funding future for dog racing