Today in Parliament, Abigail backed a call for the production of documents to further transparency on what is happening with NSW greyhound racing tracks.

Abigail said:

The Greens support this motion. I thank the Hon. Rachel Merton for moving it, even if we are perhaps coming at it from different angles. The Greens support the full transparency of exactly what is happening with all of the tracks across New South Wales. This is, indeed, a really good news story. We are finally going to see the back of the greyhound racing industry in the centre of the city, where it has been hogging land that otherwise could be put to community use. It is a really good news story. I fully agree with the contribution from the Hon. Emma Hurst, with the exception, perhaps—although I am not saying she was not saying this—of the use of taxpayer money for the industry. I would love to see taxpayer money used to close the industry down.

When The Greens advocated for the closure of greyhound racing back in 2016 and 2017, we had a very full package for exactly how we would assist in the closure of each track, by making sure that workers in these tracks, including workers in regulatory roles, would have a transition package to ensure they were upskilled and re-skilled into new jobs, which is the responsibility of any good government when it is shepherding people out of old, unsustainable industries into new ones. All of the poor, exploited dogs that are desperate to get out of the industry obviously will need a home to go to, so we had that in our package as well. Finally, the package included assistance for tracks to be rehabilitated and made good for use by community, with a full consultation process for each community to work out exactly what they wanted to do with that additional green space. That is where The Greens would put this money.

I would love to say that New South Wales is going to follow everybody else in finally disentangling itself from the gambling industry by allowing greyhound racing to continue. We are a little way from that, but these papers will help us to understand how this particular decision was made. Just last week we saw the Scottish Greens pass their bill to ban greyhound racing, and there is now no greyhound racing in Scotland. That followed just 24 hours after the same decision had been made in Wales. The decision is being made in Tasmania and they are now on the cusp of doing it in Western Australia. This is only a matter of time. What we do not want to see is people who are working in the industry in good faith left behind without a transition package. I urge the Government to make that money available.

Read the debate in Hansard here.

25 March 2026