New Racing Integrity Commissioner Ross Barnett vows to win over confidence of racing industry

QUEENSLAND’S new Racing Integrity Commissioner Ross Barnett chats with Courier Mail racing editor Nathan Exelby about his expectations of the QRIC.

ROSS Barnett has taken up the role of Queensland’s new Racing Integrity Commissioner, in which he will head the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC), which kicks off on July 1.

Barnett has spent nearly 40 years in the police service, the vast majority of those as a detective.

He spent the last two decades in areas like the armed hold up squad, sex crimes unit and drugs squad.

In this, his first major interview since taking on his new role of Racing Commissioner, Barnett talks to Courier Mail racing editor Nathan Exelby about his expectations of QRIC, why it will be a good thing for the Queensland racing industry and how he intends to win over the confidence of a sceptical industry.

He also speaks about some of the highlights of his distinguished career in the police force, but also how he has now left that behind and wants to be seen by the racing industry not as a policeman, but as a person heading up a commission that the industry can rely on as an asset and an ally.

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This is a very big shift from your history in the police service. What appealed to you about the role of Racing Integrity Commissioner?

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This is a very exciting opportunity. Virtually never in your career do you get the opportunity to build an organisation from scratch. I’ve come from an organisation with 152 years’ history to head up one where we haven’t got to day one yet.

It is a big shift. I didn’t know much about the racing industry when I took this job on. So I have been on a very steep learning curve and have learnt the industry comprises three very different and distinct codes. I am very respectful of that.

It’s a role that still has a law enforcement function, but like any police force I want the focus to be not on finding the people who do the wrong thing and prosecute them, I would rather we develop an environment where there’s compliance and there is an absence of crime.

Having said that, I’m yet to form a view on what the level of crime or serious misconduct there is in the industry. I don’t come with any pre-conceptions of what is happening in the industry. What I would be confident of is that the vast majority of people in the industry are good law abiding people that are doing the right thing and won’t have any concerns about any activity the commission might carry out.

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What is your vision for how the Commission will be perceived?

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This new role is very important because a sustainable racing industry is important to the economy of the State and the tens of thousands of people it employs directly and indirectly not to mention the social benefits and sheer enjoyment it brings to communities all over Queensland. We want to play a part in keeping racing strong for the long term.

This model is a first for Australia, I think it will be very successful and the other states will be watching with a lot of interest.

I really don’t see any downsides for the industry in all of these functions simply being amalgamated into the commission. I understand why people are concerned about change and whether it might have some negative impacts but I think the opposite. It’s a very positive thing. Give us 12 months and people can judge us then on our performance. I would like to think at the end of 12 months they will see the creation of the Commission has been a positive thing for the industry and any negative concerns about cost or use of power will have largely dissipated.

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Should the industry view you as a new sheriff controlling the show?

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I’m not sitting here with a police officer mentality. I loved my police career but I have transitioned into this role which is different. Although it does have a law enforcement function, I don’t want people to think I’m sitting here with a police officer mentality.

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How will having the commission improve integrity?

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I hope the industry and Racing Queensland comes to view the Commission as an ally. We all have a common goal of making racing is as commercially viable and ethical as it can be. We are the best ally the industry has. If we can improve public confidence in the industry if can establish levels of integrity and prove to the community that racing is an industry that operates to high standards, then betting will improve as will the financial sustainability of the industry.

We are not here to damage the reputation of the industry. Quite the opposite and I want to work with everyone to make sure we all arrive at the same place.

Ross Barnett believes many industry participants will view the creation of the Commission as a positive thing at the end of 12 months.

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Would the live baiting scandal have happened under the Commission’s watch? Would it have been uncovered?

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What I would like to think is that the Commission will get the confidence of the public and more importantly the people inside the industry because it’s highly likely the people who know it’s going on are best placed to provide information to the Commission. We need to provide an environment where they feel comfortable talking to us either on or off the record and I will make as many channels available for people to talk to us in confidence because if we can get the confidence of the good people who want to see any misconduct stamped out, they will talk to us and we will be very effective in our job.

Live baiting is a high priority for us. It’s up to us to make sure we provide the channels of communication that encourage people to share that information with us.

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There is a school of thought that the Commission will make no difference to integrity, just cost more. How do you respond to that?

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Do I think we will make a difference? I am sure we will. The QRIC model is a very sound one.

It makes perfect sense that you should separate the integrity function from the commercial one so that we leave RQ do expand and grow the business commercially and they can leave integrity to us.

The industry can have confidence an independent body

(With regard to budget) We have a very lean corporate structure. There is a dozen or so extra positions we have had to create.

The Commission will never be accused in any way of being extravagant and I will ensure there is a culture here of where we are very conscious of how we spend the money we are given.

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How will the Commission be able to prosecute those people better than what stewards currently do?

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The advantage the Commission has is that we will have a police group attached to the commission.

The Police Commissioner has agreed to allow me to have a small police group attached to the commission.

We will have a multifaceted arm where we will have the stewards, the integrity arm of the commission, as they do now, but we will add to that police investigators and police intelligence staff that will give the Commission that extra dimension.

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Will the Commission powers differ from what is in place already?

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Very little. The authorised officers will have the same powers as officers in the RSPCA. Most of their powers are around animal welfare issues. They will not have unfettered rights to go onto people’s properties without consent. They either go with consent or if they have obtained a warrant from the magistrate beforehand.

I have made it very clear that the use of powers by Commission staff should be the minimum they need to do their job. Whilst they may have a range of powers, I want them only to exercise the powers when they need to.

People in the industry will be watching and I will be watching as well. From police experience, the use of power is a very sensitive issue and one that I am very determined we will deal with appropriately.

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Will the penalties at your disposal go beyond what stewards can do at the moment?

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I’m not sure if we can go beyond that, but I want to make sure the standards the Commission sets will reflect community expectations about people involved in that high end criminal conduct.

That’s what dents public confidence in the industry.

People who want to wager have a whole range of products outside racing. The industry is in competition with other sports for betting turnover. It’s important racing has a clean reputation so they are encouraged to bet on racing in preference to other products.

Ross Barnett says he hopes the Commission will earn the trust of “good people who want to see misconduct stamped out”.

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The Racing Disciplinary Board is set to be abolished. How will the appeal process change?

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Under the new model, people who are affected by decisions of stewards will have the option in the first instance to apply for an internal review by the Commission free of charge.

Once that is done, if they are still not happy the right remains for them to go to QCAT.

Effectively QCAT will replace the RDB but the internal review is an opportunity for them to have the decision reviewed by an officer of the Commission who will have the power to either affirm the original decision, amend it or completely reverse it.

What I intend to do is appoint someone who is completely outside the Commission who has appropriate industry experience, but no links to anybody in the Commission so that the people who appeal can be confident the person who hears the appeal has the industry experience. I will advertise shortly for this position.

Although it’s called an internal review, it will be done by someone who is not a member of the commission. It will give the stewards confidence it’s not one of their peers reviewing their decision and hopefully give the industry confidence the review is being done by someone who can make an objective decision on the facts.

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Looking back on your time in the police force, what are some of the more interesting cases you worked on?

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A few stand out.

At the national Crime Authority we uncovered an amphetamine laboratory in Fortitude Valley in February 1995. At that time it was the second largest meth am lab in the world and we got 178kg of pure amphetamine in that factory that had a street value of between $200 million and $400 million.

The ringleader got the maximum 20 years. He was importing chemicals from China, manufacturing it here and exporting a lot of it to bikies in Victoria.

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Others?

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The Armed Robbery Squad was a pretty wild time. A lot of prison escapees, a lot of violence or bank and armoured car robberies.

We arrested a father and stepson who had no criminal history between them, but at that time they had done 14 of the largest bank and armoured car robberies in Queensland’s history. They netted over $3 million in cash and were getting progressively more violent. That pretty much put a stop to armoured car robberies.

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You were shot in one incident?

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There was a guy (Harold John McSweeney) who had broken out of Boggo Road (jail). While he was on the run he had conducted some fairly violent bank and armoured car robberies where shots were fired.

We got information from an informant who told us if we tried to apprehend he would shoot us and that proved to be true.

He was determined to remain at large and was prepared to shoot it out to do that. He was recaptured later that day and shot dead about a year later escaping from the Supreme Court cells.

Originally published as New Racing Integrity Commissioner Ross Barnett vows to win over confidence of racing industry