Operating Licence of Greyhound Racing NSW

After repeated attempts to obtain the operating licence for Greyhound Racing NSW, today Abigail asked the NSW Government why they won't provide it despite an upcoming inquiry into the licence itself.

Ms ABIGAIL BOYD (12:29:00): My question is directed to the Minister for Finance and Small Business. In seeking to contribute to the statutory review into the Greyhound Racing Act 2017, the terms of reference of which explicitly include, "the examination of appropriateness of the terms of an operating licence granted to Greyhound Racing NSW", both my office and various stakeholders have tried and failed to obtain the terms of that operating licence. We were advised by both the Office of Racing and Minister Anderson's office that the public is not able to access either the licence or its terms. How can the Government expect the statutory review into the Greyhound Racing Act 2017 to be robust and legitimate when it is withholding key documents within the scope of the review from public access and scrutiny?

The Hon. DAMIEN TUDEHOPE (Minister for Finance and Small Business) (12:30:04): I accept that the question may potentially be properly directed to the Leader of the Government. There are two portfolios involved here: The Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation has responsibility for greyhound racing and the Minister for Customer Service is responsible for the information that is required. It is a detailed question and I understand the issues being raised by the member. Informing the inquiry is an integral part of confidence in the outcome of the inquiry. If there is information that should be supplied to the inquiry then there is an obligation to make sure that some information sharing is available. Clearly I do not have the material available to me. It is a question very appropriate to put on notice. I will seek an answer from the Minister for Better Regulation and Innovation, and also from the Minister for Customer Service.

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NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

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Operating Licence of Greyhound Racing NSW

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