I wish it was that simple, Patrick, although I agree that we must continue to breed.
If the majority stops breeding then, well, we ourselves have given up the fight and the Greyhound industry.

There has to be a turning point where breeders regain confidence in the future and that point needs to come fairly quickly.
It's not there at the moment and I see no saviour in shining amour.

The industry has been an easybeat for decades...used, abused, raped, pillaged, and MANIPULATED. This has all been done with bugger all resistance.

In my opinion, Dan, voting the corporate Govt out will not do a thing because the next one will take up the opportunity to rort the industry yet again, and so the cycle continues...

Instead of divisions of the industry trying to fight for survival each time a challenge is made to rid us, a national PROFESSIONAL body has to be formed to draw a line in the sand and demand and defend the RIGHTS of all participants.

IT'S THE ONLY WAY...anything less is useless.

JMHO.

If you began to lose fingers?

Michael a call for a national body had gone out long ago with everyone turning a blind eye. Its the only way to form a strong united industry, playing their own game in corporation.
Your opinion is always valued Michael and while we have the current governments working against the people, we DO have independents and smaller parties who are FOR the people, our constitution and the rule of law. The major parties know this which is why they make things so difficult, but like a national body it is seriously worth having a go as the current mobs have failed us continually for many years now.

100% agree, Dan.
More than ever politics are about keeping seats rather than keeping values.
Major parties no longer have individual power and this is where the greens do damage.
Time for a change.
Time for a massive pressure group to be formed.
A group consisting of all animal industries and hobbies, which the Greyhounds are part of.
The numbers are staggering...

A national Greyhound body aligned with the above...a different ball game.

GA does not have 2016 figures, although some states may have published theirs. So, GA stats for 2003-2015 (minus NZ) show this ...

Queensland
Names -16.5%
Litters +24.5%

Australia
Names -2.6%
Litters -6.3%

But the platform has changed, too.

Australia
Meetings +1.9%
Races +6.3%
Starters +4.4%

This reflects the introduction of Tier3/Class C etc and some increases from 10 to 12 races per meeting (even more in WA). If you divide all that up it says there are fewer starters per race. That is what prompted the recent GRV rearrangements regard maidens etc.

It also means there are more dogs from each litter getting to the racetrack - which in turn leads to an overall decline in average field quality and then to the programming of crappier races at capital city meetings, including Albion Park.

Finally, the Names/Litters data for Qld is hard to understand unless you assume that breeding is good but the pups are going south. However, the breeding numbers are modest so there may be statistical errors playing there.

However, Qld has a much more serious problem than that. Every figure in the book has been in decline for over a decade now. This is a long-ignored management problem - to which the constant changes in government policies and the weakness of Tatts may not have helped.

Anyway, anything you see now is just a continuation of trends long since evident.

Queensland (and Australian) racing is operated under an obsolete governance and committee management structure which effectively means no-one is responsible or accountable. Major reform is the only way out of that.

As an aside - the relative fall in breeding points up the incompetence of industry reviewers, racing authorities and politicians in three states who all said overbreeding is the big problem - but without checking the real figures (and not helped by the silly GA memo) and not understanding how the code worked. The challenge was never about breeding numbers but about what you do with unrequired dogs.

I'm with Anthony on this one.
I know plenty of people who cannot sell all the pups they'd like too from very good matings so the proof is there for me.
If there is anything at all that drives me away it's the bullsh@t paper work you have to do and the authority's can not tell you themselves what has to be filled out so what hope has anyone else got then they hit you with fines for practically bugger all.
Doesn't happen in the horses.

Johnathon ..You have hit the nail on the head !!

You have to be a bush lawyer to understand some of the paperwork to be filled out when you want to breed a litter in Qld.

QRIC just seem to want to make it all too hard.

Bruce

I don't agree entirely on your breeding statistics for Qld in your above post that there has been a steady decline over 10 years , I have the exact figures for the last 20 years up to Jone 2016 and that is not entirely correct.

However I do agree wholeheartedly in you determination that there has been a long ignored management problem to which the constant changes in government policies and the weakness of Tatts may not have helped.
Add to that no real voice on any RQ Board of Managment by a Greyhound Industry Representative for the last 10 years.

I will also make a brave statement.
In my view if former Qld Chief Steward of Greyhounds the late Danny Ryan was still in that position the Industry in this state and maybe Aust would not be in the strife it' finds itself in now..

So by all means get someone to audit what has been going on - although the long term position in Qld is still clear.

However, it does point to three things:

(1) The general inadequacy of the GA structure, and
(2) The absence of meaningful national leadership and consistency in the industry (all codes), and
(3) The need for an independent, professional unit to handle all industry data processing (see the gallops, for example).

Note also that GA does not embrace anything commercial under its self issued charter. And, of interest, is that (a) GA has not issued a media release since last December and (b) it was a major contributor to the messy and error-laden review/bans/disruption in NSW.

The default position is that we will continue living in the 1950s. The world has passed us by.

Don't believe it?

When all the hoohaa was going on with the ban in NSW there was a massive warning shot that was fired, yet no-one even took notice of it. If they did, they certainly didn't read much into it.
It was a statement released by the CEO of NSW TAB.
It went something like - "Oh well, the dogs are going but the TAB will certainly find alternatives for the punter to be happy.
We respect the Govts decision and life goes on." These are not the same words used but the meaning of the release is EXACTLY the same.
Now, if the biggest partner in our code and the other codes (and also the biggest beneficiary) can drop us like a rotten bag of spuds THAT EASILY, without one wimper of public protest on our behalf, people must now understand we have no real allies and we are on our OWN.
The message can't come any clearer than that.

WE DEFEND OR DIE...Simple.

The hilarious other side to the TAB CEO's public persona was when the ban was reversed he came out with another statement saying something like - "Oh, golly good, the TAB are mighty glad the Greyhounds are back, but the TAB always holds welfare as a main priority."

Aaaah, such genuine loyalty. A beautiful moment.
Makes you feel all fuzzy inside, doesn't it.

Michael

You should know that the NSW TAB is full of Sh!te.

There are general managers in there that were heavily involved in greyhound racing when I was younger.

Now they look the boots of the Thoroughbred officials.

I guess their salary packages allow them to the scope to invest in thoroughbreds

Problem is they forget where they came from and where many of their friends and family cam from and what helped make them who they are.

One senior manager said to me they would fill up the gaps with overseas content and failing that, the cartoon racing.

What has this world come to?

You are right, there are no friends in business.

There are only associates who wish to share the same financial benefit as you.

That just about sums it up, Sandro.

Get professional, smart, and tough, or perish.

Anyway, this is not a panacea but greyhounds constitute a huge proportion of total races in OZ, far more than either of the gallops and trots, and as such contribute hugely to the efficiency of TAB operations - ie continuity - better use of fixed resources and labour - keeps patrons in the room and money ticking over.

To some extent, international racing could replace it - and has already in spots - but any strategic decision maker at TABCORP would have rocks in his head to favour the elimination of dogs.

If there is a problem it is that the code has failed miserably to push its wares and to maintain at least some control over its destiny. That's a fundamental reason to push for a National Greyhound Racing Commission to run the whole show. Power and influence needed!!!

The last three chiefs at GRNSW have been a bureaucrat, a bureaucrat and a bureaucrat, "helped" by a bureaucrat from GBOTA. The previous chairman but one was a bureaucrat. The last chairman was a lawyer, which is almost as bad (see McHugh, for example).

These sort of people with their backgrounds will never push the industry forward even if they understand the questions (which they don't) but Ministers keep allowing it to happen because they are controllable. Before Grant, Souris was just as bad.

You might remember that Newson, a seconded civil servant, supported the Minister's (Grant) decision to cut greyhound's tax benefit to 10% rather than 13% or 23%. The justification was totally flawed and contravened the principles IER outlined in its report. Therefore, no-one was in a position to challenge the decision - except perhaps the Alliance but we have no idea what they did.

As always, follow the money.

Bruce,
I would imagine getting rid of the dogs in NSW was no-where near ideal for the TAB. It would be an extremely complicated conundrum.
"Actions speak louder than words", there is no truer saying out there and is something I always observe. No action can sometimes be even louder.
As you rightly point out, the Greyhounds constitute a fair slice of cake for the TAB and although the hold on meetings is much smaller, the number of meetings make up quite a substantial earn for them.
So, with that in mind, one would think that they, like ANY business being threatened with major disruptions, would voice a pretty loud concern. As I said, no action can sometimes be even louder.
I remember looking long and hard at his face and I saw no remorse or sadness for the doggies when he was announcing his undying support for bairdbrains decision.
Great actor if he hid those emotions.

No Bruce, I'm guessing there was a call very early on for a meeting between the TAB and Govt and they came to a lovely agreement(which would explain their silence)over a cup of tea and scones.
Whatever the case may be it is now history but I think there are lessons to be learnt there.

One thing we do seem to agree on is a national body to right the ship and steer it forward.
Power and influence are EXACTLY what I've been harping on about and ASAP!
We are only missing one small detail to achieve this...A PLAN.

Do I remember Newson??????
OF COURSE I DO!!!!!!

He was the one who got caught writing love letters to baird so he could share in Parliament to try and justify closure!

He was the one caught twittering to grey2k cohorts on the internet putting sh1t on participants and the industry!

He was also the one, Bruce, who commissioned the Working Dog Alliance report!

;)

As I said last week

steven martin wrote:

With the LACK of dogs being bred over the last 24 months, the grading system needs an URGENT OVERHAUL in QLD before 520m TOP GRADE dogs are sidelined, or forced to be transferred to interstate trainers.

Not a single one has backed up their views with reasons or evidence.

I can assume only that some trainers did not like being advised there were better ways of educating, training and caring for dogs than live baiting (plus other points).

Whatever else Newson did, the WDA report and the UTS track study represent the only significant moves in the last 50 years to drag the industry out of its 1950s cocoon. Too late, perhaps, as the damage is proving near lethal but those two efforts at least give the industry a faint hope.

I have often said that the trainer group represents the industry's greatest corporate asset but that also means that when it does the wrong thing it can bring the walls crumbling down - as it has done.