By Sean Nicholls
The cost to taxpayers of reforming the NSW greyhound racing industry instead of closing it will be at least $41 million after the government agreed to fund reforms including the establishment of a new independent integrity agency.
On Tuesday, Racing Minister Paul Toole said the government had accepted all but one of the recommendations of an expert panel established last year to advise how to reform greyhound racing in NSW after former premier Mike Baird's reversal of an industry ban.
Mr Toole said $30 million would be spent to implement the recommendations, which include a new enforceable code of conduct on greyhound welfare, CCTV cameras at all public and some private tracks and tougher penalties for live baiting and other animal welfare offences.
A further $11 million will fund the establishment of a Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission and operational funding for five years, after which the industry will be required to fund the agency.
"I got it wrong": Then premier Mike Baird announcing a reversal of the greyhound racing ban last October. Credit: Wolter Peeters
But the government has not embraced a recommendation to consider increasing greyhound racing's share of the TAB racing turnover under the inter-code agreement designed to help sustain the reforms.
The sole recommendation not supported by the government relates to how the new integrity commission will be constituted.
However, the expert panel chairman, former NSW Premier Morris Iemma, said this would "not impact in any way on owners, breeders, trainers and most importantly the animals that are in the industry".
"What this marks is the beginning of a new industry … in which animal welfare, compassion, care and safety is at the heart," Mr Iemma said of the reforms.
"What this marks is the beginning of a new industry": Morris Iemma.Credit: Jessica Hromas
Brenton Scott, the chief executive of Greyhound Breeders Owners and Trainers Association said the funding package "goes some way to addressing the issues before us".
But he said the industry was disappointed that the level of funding via the intercode agreement was "still at a level that is unacceptable" and would continue to work for a better outcome.
The government will spend $41 million to reform the greyhound industry.Credit: Craig Golding
The chief executive of the RSPCA, Steve Coleman, also a panel member, said the organisation was "pleased with the government's announcement today".
But the success of the integrity commission depended on proper resourcing and the intelligence that it receives from the industry, he said.
The panel was announced last year by Mr Baird as part of his sensational backdown on a push to ban greyhound racing in NSW.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley described the decision as "a $41 million backflip."
"It should never have come to this," Mr Foley said. "They shouldn't have banned it; they should have reformed it to higher standards of animal welfare. This government has to backflip on so many issues that you have to conclude they can't have been a good government in the first place."
Greens MLC Mehreen Faruqi said the funding was "blood money".
"Even one cent of public money to prop up the cruel sport of greyhound racing to continue is completely unacceptable," she said.
"Premier Gladys Berejiklian stands for nothing. After a year-and-a-half long Special Commission of Inquiry that recommended that the cruelty and death was so systemic that it should be shut down, the NSW Liberals and Nationals have decided to not only backflip on the ban, but to reward the greyhound racing industry."