by Brian de Lore
Published 13 September 2019
Police raided the Kim Dotcom mansion in January 2012, and the US Department of Justice has been trying to extradite him to America ever since, to face charges relating to illegal file-sharing to his Megaupload site that earned him millions of dollars.
New Zealand’s bureaucracy has stretched the extradition into its eighth year, and we are still counting. Let it be a warning to New Zealand racing that the industry is now in the hands of like-minded bureaucrats in Wellington who have no conception of time and no care for racing’s future
The bureaucracy in Petone and Wellington has probably never heard of Charles Darwin who once said: “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
Time is the one critical ingredient in very short supply for racing, and as long as the DIA is controlling the schedule, time won’t be a consideration. If the Minister doesn’t intervene and rev-up the DIA and RITA and get the Messara Report actioned then it may become another statistic and go dusty somewhere on a shelf like every other review in racing’s history.
RITA was expected to take control of racing and make a big splash but instead has barely dipped its toe in the water. If you read MAC’s interim report released in late April it talked about taking action; the actual words were, “Change will happen quickly and disruption must be carefully managed,” but no such action is has occurred.
MAC/RITA said that from July 1st it would, “enable initiatives that will drive revenue growth and reduce the cost for the racing industry.” But the legislation that became law on that date has shown just how ill-prepared the DIA-RITA co-operative was by having no agreements in place and nothing to collect which is simply money down-the-drain as a consequence. From all accounts, the rates are not yet set.
The lack of preparation to collect racefields levies that could be supporting stakes money is a disgrace. And the complete disregard for taking action to reduce racing’s massive administrative costs is also a disgrace. The NZRB which has a new name called RITA still has a CEO earning $680,000 annually, a total of 14 employees on $220,000 or above and 144 employees on $100,000 or more.
The wastage is diabolical and is nothing short of thievery from a starving industry. For years and years, the ever-fattening NZRB has been siphoning off the cash that belongs to the owners and workers of racing. That it has been allowed to continue this long is extraordinary.
The hatchet-man needs to come in to slash and burn the costs. Tweaking, convening more meetings, continued full involvement with the DIA and the failure to be honest with the coal-face people of racing is not making the drastic changes required to salvage whatever can be salvaged of this once great industry.
Does racing need to be once more reminded about our 2006 status when the combined cash and property assets amounted to more than $106 million and interest was an income stream? Now, it owes $25 million which is the upper level of the limit, couldn’t pay back the due $9 million at the end of July and has effectively rolled over the loan and has placed itself in a tight corner with no room to move.
Racing is displaying all the signs of self-harm and needs a financial shrink. Instead of facing up to the issues three years ago when the writing was clearly on the wall, John Allen intensified his campaign of fake news and borrowed money to put the stakes up – tantamount to putting a bandaid on a severed limb.
All the while Allen was singing the praises of everything he was doing, releasing Statements of Intent that showed profits of up to $220 million and acting like the court jester. Many people believed the bullshit, and look what we have now – a FOB that has cost $50 million which is a crock.
Worse still, he’s still employed and effectively in charge and still collecting his weekly pay packet of $13,000. WHAT A JOKE!, metaphorically speaking. Yet, the Interim Report said that RITA from July 1st “supports the Change Management Programme,” which can only mean one thing.
The cover-ups and the lying to the participants has been going on for years and has become the norm rather than the exception – same as the politicians. We have been lied to so much we expect lies and deception. Proof is everywhere between the lines in the annual reports.
A recently departed employee from NZRB has stated that if the top three executives at this dysfunctional organisation failed to get out of bed for a month or two it would make no difference whatsoever to the running of the TAB.
The gravy train rolls on at full-pace and today on the RITA website a total of 17 jobs were in the offing. A couple of months ago NZRB employed a new IT Manager and will relocate that person and his family from Australia at a massive cost and pay him $350,000 to $400,000. Where is the cost-cutting?
The scope for cost-cutting is massive. Apart from salaries, the last annual report shows they spent $58,700 each and every week on travel and accommodation. Another weekly debit of $49,000 comes in the form of hiring consultants. A further $65,000 a week was spent on items listed as ‘other operating expenses’ with no further explanation offered.
No accountability and no transparency. No broom through management to clean out the dead-wood and costs, and no apparent show of strength in the leadership of RITA to give stakeholders a glimmer of hope. RITA should seriously address all these issues and take drastic action.
It makes this paragraph which appeared on page six of the executive summary quite laughable:
“The committee also want to reverse the historical model where the stakeholders of the business get what’s left after the administrators have taken what they believed they needed to run the industry. The stakeholders can no longer be left at the end of the food chain. Their interests must sit at the heart of an efficient, responsive, future-proofed commercial model.”
Lip service at best. Too much self-interest and job protection going on and a lack of strong leadership. Someone needs to make a statement as this industry is fed-up to the teeth with the same old, same old as the inertia of the downward spiral intensifies.
Where is the accountability? Why is this industry allowing these people to write such promises, not deliver them and get away with it? The codes have displayed their total apathy and lack of grit in failing to protest in any positive way while racing is dying a slow and agonising death.
And for the lack of recent statements from the Minister while he continues his absence on sick leave, it is worth regurgitating the NZ First Racing Manifesto which included these promises:
- Introduce a new (below Premium Meeting) where every race will be for a $15,000 minimum with relativity across the codes.
- Restore marque racing plans and prize money initiatives in-line with NZ First Implementation 2005-2008.
- Urgently review the operations and costs of the New Zealand Racing Board.
- Enhance employment and export opportunities by working with the industry to improve the international status of New Zealand Group One races to attract greater international interest
Two years hence and none of these have happened. All we have to date is the promise of maintaining stakes at the current paltry level of last season – a directive from the Minister to RITA.
But on the figures shown here in last week’s blog (and those figures are correct), the prospect of keeping the status quo with an underperforming TAB looks bleak without an infusion of revenue from some unknown source.
The hole is getting deeper. The list of unfulfilled promises is mounting, and the industry morale is badly in need of a massive dose of decisive action.
