Greens councillor Rohan Leppert wants City of Melbourne to stop funding Melbourne Cup Parade
The Melbourne Cup Carnival is one of the nation’s biggest and most popular series of events but a Greens city councillor says ratepayers shouldn’t help fund a “cruel” industry.
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The popular Melbourne Cup Parade would be dumped under an anti-racing push by a Greens member inside Melbourne City Council.
Cr Rohan Leppert, who ran as Greens candidate for lord mayor last year, wants the council to no longer sponsor “events that celebrate or involve horseracing”.
Cr Leppert has previously called the racing industry “evil” and recently tweeted that the Morrison Government was “fascist”.
His anti-racing motion will be put to a Future Melbourne Committee meeting on Tuesday, but it’s likely to be soundly defeated.
The motion says that many City of Melbourne residents and ratepayers don’t want ratepayers’ funds “to celebrate an industry that relies on unsustainable and cruel practices”.
But Lord Mayor Sally Capp, who attended this week’s Cup parade and some carnival races, said the festival injected more than $440 million into the state economy and was one of the nation’s biggest events.
“The benefits of this industry are felt right across our state, creating jobs for more than 20,000 staff and contractors,” she said.
“Crowds at the Melbourne Cup parade on Monday stretched down Swanston St. Despite the rain, thousands of people lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the Cup.”
Cr Capp said that as a sponsor of the carnival the council was committed to the wellbeing of horses.
“It’s clear that the industry needs to do better in terms of animal welfare and we will be monitoring their response to this issue,” she said.
“The laws around the welfare of retired racehorses need to be enhanced and better enforced to ensure that unacceptable treatment of such magnificent animals does not continue.”
The Lord Mayor’s statement did not say if she would support or oppose Cr Leppert’s motion.
However, the Herald Sun understands that she’s highly unlikely to support it, as are most other councillors.