Angry response to proposed cuts

Press, 30 August 1989, Page 46

Angry response to proposed cuts

NZPA-AAP Melbourne The president of the Victorian Thoroughbred Racehorse Owners’ Association, Nick Columb, yesterday called on the racing industry to vote against the state Labour government at the next election over proposed budget cuts to the three racing codes. The cuts would cull sAust2l.2 million off the projected amount of sAustB3 million that the racing, harness and greyhound codes were expecting as their share -of T.A.B. distribution.

Mr Columb, a leading Victorian racehorse owner, told a meeting of the industry at Flemington racecourse yesterday: “What Cain (the premier) is doing is government butchery. “Cain is our enemy and he must be stopped at the ballot box at the next election.”

The V.R.C. chairman, Peter Armytage, opened the meeting by saying: “you all know why we are here. Racing has been stabbed in the back but we are not weak.” All three codes and all branches of the industry were represented from all parts of Victoria, including the metropolitan racing clubs and all country district racing associations. But government plans may strike a stumbling block in the state parliament’s Upper House, as both the Liberal and National parties threatened to delay legislation enabling the increase until the Government entered genuine negotiations with the racing industry. After meeting with racing industry

representatives, the Liberal and National parties warned they might be obstructive in the Upper House if the Government did not meet the concerns of the industry. The Liberal Sport and Recreation spokesman, Phil Gude, said his party was not prepared to see this major Victorian industry smashed by a shortsighted Government decision. “The Liberal Party set up the T.A.B. as a means of generating revenue from racing for community purposes, not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” he said. Mr Gude said the Government should understand that cutting money already committed to the industry would result in prizemoney being reduced and race revenue over-all dropping. If races were cut and prizemoney reduced it was inevitable that the State’s already strained hospitals would be subject to even greater financial pressure in the years ahead. The National Party leader, Pat McNamara, said racing industry representatives had indicated they were prepared to discuss the Budget proposals with the Government with a view to arriving at a fair and equitable formula designed to preserve the viability of racing in Victoria. “We assured the racing industry officials that we would not allow the bill to pass in its present form and would delay legislation until the Government entered genuine negotiations with the industry,” he said in a statement.