QUEENSLAND PARLIAMENT TOLD OF LACK OF CONSULTATION IN THREE CODE MERGER

RACING Minister Peter Lawlor has been accused in Parliament of forcing an amalgamation of the three codes into one board ‘to continue to long-term reign of Bob Bentley over racing in Queensland.’

Ray Stevens, the Shadow Minister for Racing, said the QRL chairman had devised a new scheme to extend his unelected reign over racing in Queensland for another five years without any consultation with industry, any public disclosure of the terms and benefits of the amalgamation, or any quantification of the projects he will deem worthy of expenditure of the new-found industry’s money.

Mr Stevens told the House that: “Minister Lawlor has abandoned all three racing codes in Queensland and has himself adopted the intimidating and coercive bullyboy style of his mouth-piece, Labor Party messenger (and Queensland Racing chairman) Bob Bentley.

“I table a letter from the Minister to Queensland Harness Racing blatantly threatening them to agree to the amalgamation proposal or face ‘new funding arrangements’ which will be forced on their industry.

“The Minister is crystal clear in his blackmail attempt on Harness Racing, saying that if they did not follow his wishes they would lose operating funding and get no capital injection from the supposed extra funding from Treasury.

“Harness Racing have the Minister’s gun at their heads, so of course they will be forced to agree to the detrimental proposal for the future of harness racing in Queensland,” Mr Stevens said.

“This is not about the betterment of racing in Queensland; this is about extending the unfettered reign of Bob Bentley, the Labor Party fall guy for all of the Government’s woes in all three racing codes.

“The Labor Party is happy for Bentley to take the blame for its lack of funding to all three racing codes in its neglect of the racing industry in Queensland. When Bentley takes the heat, Minister Lawlor hides meekly away, hoping industry woes will not create a voter backlash for the Labor Party.

“Bentley tried to extend his long-term dictatorship over Queensland racing for several more years when racing was under Treasurer Andrew Fraser. But his undemocratic proposal was even too hot for the Labor Party under fire for jobs for Labor mates.

“So Bentley came up with this new scheme to extend his unelected reign over racing in Queensland for another five years without any consultation with industry, any public disclosure of the terms and benefits of the amalgamation, or any quantification of the projects he will deem worthy of expenditure of the new-found industry’s money at Bentley’s discretion.

“If the Government has extra money for the racing, trotting and greyhound industries, it should commit it now to the current boards for immediate injection as part of a very worthy stimulus package to racing,” Mr Stevens said.