The Minister for Racing, Kevin Anderson, must call for the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission to hold an inquiry into all matters related to greyhound racing at Dapto.
Under the Part 8 of the Greyhound Racing Act 84(3) “the Minister may require an inquiry to be conducted”.
The CEO of Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) Tony Mestrov, has been on site at Dapto threatening to impose an Administrator, accusing the current operators of acting unlawfully and suggesting that the finances of the club are in questionable condition. He also suggested that GRNSW themselves will conduct racing at the Dapto track but it is unlikely that GRNSW would have a Lease or Permit from Dapto Agriculture and Horticulture Society.
The events of the past 48 hours follow the Dapto Agriculture and Horticulture Society (DAHS) announcement that they would no longer be conducting greyhound racing at the site after months of negotiation with GRNSW failed to find an acceptable compromise.
The main sticking points appear to be a requirement by GRNSW that Dapto sign on for a 3 year contract and that Thursday night race meetings be changed to Saturdays.
Shadow Minister for Greyhound Racing Clayton Barr has said “We must pull out all stops to save this iconic event and racing venue”.
“At the moment we have 2 parties with distinctly different accounts of the facts and proceedings to date and quite simply, they both cannot be true. The Act requires that there be a paper trail to show that negotiations have been ongoing. But instead of this matter being resolved internally, we have the CEO of GRNSW making extraordinary claims of impropriety by the local Agriculture and Horticulture Society prior to either party having the matter heard by way of Inquiry or Court action” said Mr Barr.
“The Minister does have the power to require the Welfare and Integrity Commission of Greyhound Racing to conduct an Inquiry and I urge him to exercise this power immediately”
“I am confident that this will bring out the truth and the fact is that if a person is found to be lying to an Inquiry by the Commission they can face up to 2 years imprisonment”.
Local MP, Anna Watson, fought to save Greyhound Racing and the Dapto dogs in 2016 when Mike Baird tried to cancel the sport. She too is calling for the Minister to act. “I am calling on the Minister to intervene in this dispute.”
“GRNSW have made serious allegations that must be investigated . If these are found to be untrue then the Minister should reconsider the appointment of Tony Mestrov” she said.