Over the past dozen years, the ACT Government has given the horse racing industry around $100 million – but Greens MLA Jo Clay maintains that the social licence for the sport has run out, and taxpayer money should not be spent to prop up the dying industry.

“The ACT Greens simply do not think that a taxpayer subsidy to the horse racing industry is in the public interest,” Ms Clay, Greens spokesperson for animal welfare, said.

Yesterday, she mooted amending the ACT Budget to reduce funding to the industry by 40 per cent. Her proposal was defeated. Last year, she proposed phasing out public funds to the industry by 20 per cent over the next five years; her motion was squashed.

In Labor and the Liberals’ opinion, Ms Clay is flogging a dead horse.

“It is disappointing that we need to trod over old ground again,” Chris Steel, Special Minister of State, said. “We have had this debate, and every time the Greens try to pull this political stunt it causes enormous stress for the clubs and the people employed in this industry …

“And those proposed amendments would cripple our local racing industry. It would come at the cost of jobs, trust, and integrity.”

Under a Memorandum of Understanding Mr Steel signed with the Canberra Racing Club and the Canberra Harness Racing Club last year, the ACT Government will provide more than $41 million to the clubs from July 2022 to June 2027 (more than $8 million each year).

This followed two previous MOUs, all three “totalling 15 years of funding for the horse racing industry”, Ms Clay said – despite the ACT Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission recommending in 2011 that the industry should be self-sufficient, and any public funds should only be for a short and limited period of time, she noted.

“The ACT horse racing industry has been pledged around a hundred million dollars under these special deals,” Ms Clay said. “That is quite a lot of money for this small government. And the horse racing industry keeps asking for more.”

Under the MOUs, Ms Clay said, the ACT Government gave the money to the clubs outside the public tender or grant process, and with little scrutiny.

The previous two MOUs were not published, Ms Clay stated.

“There was very little information or reporting on the funds in the budget, and almost no transparency over what those funds were spent on,” Ms Clay said.

The tide of public opinion has turned against horse racing, she believes: a Canberra media poll conducted last year showed that 74 per cent of the 1,525 respondents believed the ACT taxpayer should not support the horse racing industry.

Moreover, Ms Clay said, the horse racing industry gets more than the ACT Brumbies, the Canberra Raiders, the Canberra Capitals, and Canberra United combined. (The Brumbies receive $1.8 million each year; the Raiders $2.6 million; and the Canberra Capitals and Canberra United receive $1.6 million between them over four years.) Likewise, the horse racing industry gets 800 times as much funding as our community sports. (Community sports receive up to $10,000, after a competitive grant process.)

“Now, giving money to the ACT horse racing industry does not tackle any of the ACT’s major challenges,” Ms Clay said.

“We are giving $8 million of taxpayer funds every year, $100 million in deals so far. We are giving it to an industry that has lost its social licence. We are giving it outside of any public tender or grant process.

“We are handing it over without any clear indication of what services the people of Canberra get in exchange or how the money will be spent. We are doing so year after year despite the fact that an independent commission told us 12 years ago not to do this. Why are we doing this?  I do not know.”

In her opinion, the end of the MOU is “a cliff for a dying industry”. The government needs to plan for a sensible transition: training the staff and rehoming the horses. The defeat of her amendment, she worries, “means the industry lost another year in which they could have planned their transition”.

In a later statement, Ms Clay said the money could be better spent on addressing the climate, housing, and inequality crises.

“There is a lot the ACT Government could do with $41 million. We could front up to inequality and build more public housing, or help more Canberrans on the lowest incomes with energy efficiency upgrades, so they can live more cheaply, comfortably and sustainably.

“We could keep this money in the sports sector to boost community sport and community facilities.”

Ms Clay said she could not find any services listed that the racing clubs would provide in exchange for money. The best she found, she said, was meeting standards “that they are already required to meet under our own laws and under their own racing rules”; undergoing inspections “that most organisations already undergo”; being partnered during committee to develop policy about their industry; and giving the ACT Government some reports.

“Frankly, I do not know any other industry group that gets so well paid to help write their own industry policy and regulation,” Ms Clay said. “It is really nice work if you can get it.”

Mr Steel said that the MOUs include requirements around animal welfare obligations, integrity, ongoing viability, governance accountability and the efficiency of the industry.

Clubs must inform the ACT Government of an integrity related complaint being made, or a breach occurring, within 30 days once the club is made aware of the complaint or breach. Clubs must also provide information to the government on efforts undertaken to increase revenue through existing income streams around their viability.

Clubs must develop new external income streams to support sustainability and their longevity; and participate in the joint racing industry government committee, which addresses animal welfare obligations and consults on key racing industry issues.

Clubs are working with the ACT Government to develop an ACT racehorse traceability framework by the end of the MOU term, and must adhere to the local rules of racing, which also contain provisions around rehoming and retraining retired horses.

“We recognise that the Canberra community has high expectations for safe and well-regulated racing in return for our public investment, and that is why we have moved to provide these additional requirements as part of the MOU,” Mr Steel said.

Canberra Liberals MLA Mark Parton, Shadow Minister for Gaming and Community Clubs, took the bit between his teeth.

“Horse racing is not dying; horse racing is part of the fabric of Australia,” he said.

The allocation of government funding – much lower than the allocation to every other comparable race club in NSW, he noted – provided direct and indirect employment to 500 people – mainly “minimum wage battlers, many of whom do not hold the skills to gain employment in other areas”.

Ms Clay, he said, did not understand that most of the funding to the race club was returned to the community through prize money, and only took turnover on ACT racing into account when it came to the return to government.

Ms Clay stated that the ACT horse racing industry generates less than $250,000 in betting tax, but gets more than $8 million each year in public taxpayer funds. Mr Parton, however, stated that the betting operations tax returned $32 million to ACT coffers. That money came from Canberrans betting on racing codes, often outside Canberra.

Moreover, Mr Parton said, the ACT’s racing codes received the lowest per capita funding of any jurisdiction in Australia, despite the ACT Government being the highest recipient of wagering revenue per capita in Australia.

Finally, Thorougbred Park’s stock was exported to 68 countries.

“I’m sick of this city being a social experiment,” Mr Parton said. “I’m sick of crazy fringe extremist ideas being brought to this place and then becoming law somehow because Labor and the Greens are trying to out progressive each other.”