The Tasmanian Racing Industry is rightly celebrating the sacking of now former Minister for Racing, Madeleine Ogilvie.
I am hearing from stables, breeders, kennels and owners who are ecstatic the worst Racing Minister in Tasmanian history has finally been sacked. I was pleased to work with them as we exposed cover ups and the complete incompetence of this Minister.
The most offensive thing about Ms Ogilvie’s time as Minister was that it was pretty obvious she did not care.
Unlike the Liberals, Labor actually cares about the racing industry. It’s a $200 million per year industry with 6,000 participants who love their animals.
In a short but disastrous tenure as Minister, Ms Ogilvie:
- Lied about the reason for the departure of the former CEO of TasRacing
- Faced with serious allegations from BOTRA about her Director of Racing, sent those complaints directly to the Director of Racing. She never apologised for doing so.
- Faced with even more serious allegations about the Office of Racing Integrity, race fixing and animal welfare; told Parliament ‘Racing has never been in better shape’ before asking the Office of Racing Integrity to investigate itself.
- Leaves the most serious allegations of race fixing, animal welfare breaches, sexual harassment, tax evasion and wage unresolved.
- Took six months to respond to the Monteith Review before not implementing a single recommendation more than a year after it was published.
- Told a Committee ‘everyone was very pleased’ with the Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP), despite absolutely no one being happy with how it has been performing.
- Could not say whether she had even visited harness racing clubs across northern Tasmania. She had not.
- Leaves North West Harness and Greyhound trainers with no track and no prospect of one anytime soon as the Liberals election promise is now massively underfunded and still without a timeline.
By leaving Ms Ogilvie in the portfolio so long, Jeremy Rockliff showed he was prepared to put his own political interests ahead of the interests of great Tasmanian racing people, especially in his own electorate of Braddon.
Ms Ogilvie should never have been left in the portfolio so long when it has been clear from the start she was the wrong person for the job.
I sincerely hope Mr Ellis does a better job – and that will not be hard.
Dean Winter MP
Shadow Minister for Racing
