Winston Peters: Racing Minister on the Government's plan to phase out greyhound racing in New Zealand

Winston Peters says supporters of greyhound racing shouldn't be too shocked by the Government's ban on the industry. 

The Racing Minister has revealed plans are in motion to wind it down over 20 months, giving time to rehome almost 3,000 racing dogs.

Legislation has also passed in the house under urgency today to prevent the greyhounds being killed as a result. 

Peters says there's been multiple reviews calling on authorities to act in the best interest of the dogs.

"There've been three reviews - 2013, 2017 and 2021 - which all pointed to the need to act in the interests of the dogs."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good Nigga seven after five and a huge shock for
the racing industry. The government has announced a ban on
greyhound racing this afternoon. The racing will be phased out
over the next twenty months, but they have moved quickly
from announcement to Parliament and urgent laws are being passed
right now in our Parliament and Wellington to prevent the
unnecessary killing of racing dog dogs. Winston Peters is the

(00:22):
Racing Minister. Minister welcome to the program. The industry says
they've been basically blindsided by this. Was that the intention, No, it.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Wasn't the intention, and they shouldn't have been blindsided given
that there have been three reviews two thousand and thirteen,
two seventeen, twenty twenty one which all pointed to the
need to act in the interest of the dogs.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
How many of them are dying or being injured?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Well, the percentage is far too high. It's about sixtyen
and a half percent higher than would be any acceptable rate.
And those are the most recent findings comparative over the
last few years. And as a consequence, we've had to
do the responsible and the right thing.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
How does that compare to say, horse racing.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Well, they're totally different animals, that's the point, and you
know they're not the same. There are injuries always in
all sorts of racing, so to speak, as there will
be in any leisurely or recreational use of animals in
that context. But these levels of injury and things going wrong,
we're just too high, too unacceptable. And the hands in

(01:31):
report in particular, that's spelled out what had to be
done and that wasn't done.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
So just to be clear that the death and injury
rates in greyhounds is higher, much higher than it is
for horse racing.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
It is in this context, so they're different animals entirely.
But we also had animals being unaccounted for paperwork not
being done and we were alluded to that and we
asked that this will be fixed up. And there were
just too many things that weren't done properly.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
And a half percent of economic output for the racing
industry generally. Do you know what that is in dollar terms?
What it's going to cost.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, it's about one fifty million, but that'll be spread
over the rest of the industry over the next ten years,
where we hope to be bringing more than a billion
dollar sixtra into the racing industry. And don't forget, when
we're talking about dogs, we're talking about serious injuries here
some days, so that they've got to be put down.
And that sort of record was just too high.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
When you talk about the money, what about the people,
the thousand people who are employed in this area.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, don't forget, that's about three per dog, so one
per three dogs, and as a consequence, many of those
are casuals. But we've given them twenty months who reposition themselves.
The rest of the season will continue. Then one last
season mid twenty five to twenty six to the middle
twenty six and it'll be over and they'll have time

(02:55):
to relocate. Two new forms have been work and including
some of the existing industry embracing that still survives.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
You've announced this and your rushing legislation through the House
this afternoon very quickly. Why is that to.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Ensure that dogs are not euthanized by people at home
and they're going to be required to do that by
BET in the future. All the safety messages who the
dog's welfare has looked after and we've got one hundred
and twenty two verts in Parliament Cross pays bought for
that to happen.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Is your confidence in this industry so low that you
don't trust them even if you left it a week
that they wouldn't euthanize their own dogs at home.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
There are, of course people you can trust, and then
there are some people that don't want on trust. That's
the record, and our job is to ensure that the
over or welfare of the industry is treated as a collective,
not just in individual cases.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Minister, thank you very much, you try and really appreciate it.
That's Winston Peters, the Racing Minister. For more from Hither
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