Why NSW Labor will not take the same road on greyhounds as Baird

Amid rising anger at the Coalition government’s snap decision in 2016 to ban greyhound racing, a trusted cabinet colleague urged then-premier Mike Baird to stay firm, insisting no one would ever turn on him for showing kindness to dogs.

Baird’s resolve to shut down greyhound racing came after former High Court judge Michael McHugh’s review into the brutality of the industry, sparked by an earlier ABC Four Corners exposé.

Eight years on, brutality has again been exposed, this time through an explosive report by a Greyhound Racing NSW former chief vet, with allegations that re-homing rates were inflated, dogs were suffering a massive rise in injuries and most were then left to “live out their miserable post-racing lives in industrial kennels”.

But Baird’s Labor successor Chris Minns will not follow the Coalition’s lead. Minns knows to shut down such an industry would bring electoral death for Labor in the regions, where it already has minimal political sway. More crucially, the centrist Minns would see Baird’s actions as moral crusading with no political benefit.

Baird described McHugh’s review as “chilling, confronting, horrific”, saying on July 7, 2016 that the former judge “shone the light on an industry that has overseen the slaughter of tens of thousands of healthy dogs whose only crime was they weren’t fast enough.”

He declared the only “humane response was to close that industry down”.

Initially, it seemed that Baird’s colleague was right. The revelations that greyhound trainers were secretly blooding their dogs with live bait was shocking. No one criticised Baird for wanting to end animal cruelty.

However, what Baird did not fully appreciate was the anger that would grow in the regions, home to the majority of greyhound tracks. The policy, seen as imposed on the regions by the city slickers, was poison in the bush and Labor was on the sidelines watching it go badly for their opponents.