by Brian de Lore
Published 4 October 2018
For too long now the stakeholders of New Zealand racing have benignly accepted whatever’s has been dished up to them by an increasingly intolerable NZRB.
In the 15 years since the Racing Act of 2003 became the enforcing legislation the plight of the racing industry has deteriorated into an all-time low while still-passionate horse people go about their business in lessening numbers with only the name ‘Messara’ repeated in their murmurings of hope.
Every organisation within the thoroughbred code; the NZTR, the Trainers’ Association, the Owners’ Association, and the Breeders’ Association has failed, fallen behind, faltered or whatever you want to call it.
That opinion will grate on some, but no organised group in the thoroughbred code has made any headway at all in that time. Not one body has offered innovation, leadership or enough consternation or noisy protestations even to get a headline.
Has NZTR (Love Racing) performed well over the 15 years since the Act became legislation? In recent times the level of discontent and criticism for it has increased significantly. The feeling amongst stakeholders, rightly or wrongly, is that not enough has been done to curb an increasingly out-of-control NZRB and that communication with the stakeholders and, in particular, the clubs, has been poor.
NZTR will hotly defend itself by saying it is shackled by the Racing Act and has no power or room to move and its communication with the stakeholders has been sufficient. Well, Colin Meads didn’t become a champion All Black by being shy or playing entirely by the rules. The big achievers in this world just make it happen.
In the out-of-date NZTR website under ‘Overview and Structure,’ it says, ‘Represent the interests of thoroughbred code stakeholders, principally the 67 thoroughbred racing clubs operating on 51 galloping tracks.’
It would be much better if the website was up-to-date with the correct number of tracks and clubs and said, “represent the ‘best’ interests” rather than just the interests. But I digress and now, having been successfully removed from every Christmas card list for 2018 and beyond, the focus of this story is about the deception perpetrated on the stakeholders by NZRB.
Sunday’s Weigh In program featured NZRB CEO John Allen who came on for 20 minutes to be questioned by Sheldon Murtha and Michael Guerin about the Messara Report.
During that interview, Guerin asked Allen what the key points were in the Messara report from an NZRB viewpoint to which he replied, “The key points are that we do support racefields and the abolition of the racing duty. We do need investment in racing infrastructure, and so we strongly support the three synthetic tracks that Mr. Messara has advocated.”
Allen then talked about the lack of infrastructure at the clubs, and then added, “Lastly, we do think the option of outsourcing the TAB has to be very carefully thought through. The TAB is a significant asset for our industry.”
How can you have a review of the Messara Report and completely ignore the main thrust of the Report – part one, which calls for the renaming of the NZRB as Wagering NZ and promotes the transfer of all racing functions to the individual codes.
In effect, part one defrocks the NZRB completely and saves in the vicinity of $70 million in running costs when part two is activated with the outsourcing of the TAB. But no mention is made of this which itself flies in the face of the Racing Act of 2003 which under ‘Objectives of the Board’ 8(c) says,’ to maximise its profits for the long-term benefit of New Zealand racing.’
We all know that hasn’t happened and NZRB has been living the high life at the expense of the real people of racing and especially the racehorse owners who pay for everything. Remember that Messara says prizemoney can be doubled if we adopt his report in its entirety.
The reality is that the NZRB has long been a law unto itself and has disregarded parts of the Racing Act (the good parts that offered the stakeholders some protection) and its impropriety has not been acted upon by a benign NZTR.
Take, for instance, the last NZRB board appointment which was nothing less than a shoulder-tap for Bill Birnie from the friendly Chair in Glenda Hughes. The appointment was conducted outside the terms of the Act and while NZTR was fully aware of it they did nothing. What would make the stakeholders of racing angrier – the appointment of Birnie or the roll-over lack of reaction from the codes?
Back to the point, Trackside TV is part of the TAB which is the main arm of NZRB. Guerin works for NZRB and Allen is the CEO. Do I need to say any more? Were rules in place about the questioning?
How badly can the stakeholders in this racing industry be treated? This is not democratic television or neutral reporting we are talking about, it’s something more akin to a repressed society, and it shows a level of contempt from authority to participants not usually associated with this country.
Next, in the interview, Guerin brought up racefields when he said, “The Minister on Friday said the racefields legislation would not be going to parliament. He indicated he wasn’t happy with it; it wasn’t fit for purpose was his words. Is there no communication between the Minister and yourself because he hadn’t told you in advance?
Allen replied: “I don’t know he’d told anyone in advance of that particular decision. Perhaps he couldn’t because of the parliamentary process. I’m not sure, but the reason I was concerned and remained concerned is because we need the money.”
To call this deception is being kind. Anyone that has followed the racefields legislation progress knows that the Minister has been saying since last year the wording of the legislation wasn’t fit for purpose having been written pre-election by national party people who don’t understand racing.
That fact has been stated several times here in The Informant. The Minister stated it himself at the launch of the Messara Report (and debated it with Graeme Rogerson), and he has always said we get only one chance at doing the legislation and everything has to be done at once. It was no secret.
For Allen to claim he knew nothing about it is more than mischief. Guerin then said, “can you not ring Winston Peters and ask these questions – has your relationship not been established; is there a breakdown of communication because you are in charge of NZ Racing and he’s the Minister of racing, but you guys don’t seem to talk very often.”
These were legitimate questions to which Allen answered, “But as you’ve said he’s extraordinarily busy; he has a multitude of portfolios; he’s got to lead his party in a reasonably complex coalition; he’s the Deputy Prime Minister but the answer to your question of do we talk – no we don’t.”
The fact that the CEO of the NZRB and the Minister of Racing don’t talk is an indictment of the appalling lack of intent of NZRB to act in the best interests of the industry stakeholders.
Texting the Minister to get the story straight, he phoned back almost immediately with this response: “I’m at the airport about to fly out so can’t talk for very long, but the essence of it is that I have a timeline for parliamentary legislation that I have to use wisely.
“I cannot keep on jamming things into the parliamentary schedule, and it made sense to pull that out of the schedule and incorporate whatever good parts there are into a new bill as fast as I can.
“That’s it in a nutshell; as a piece of legislation which has dragged on for all this time, it doesn’t fit the comprehensive bill we are trying to fix up in one piece of legislation. As I’ve said previously, the way the legislation was written was not fit for the comprehensive purpose of fixing the racing industry up.”
“So can I confirm,” I asked the Minister, “that we are rewriting that legislation and it must fit into the context of the rewrite of the entire Act.”
“Precisely – I think the misreporting of it is from people that were got to – I’m seriously suspicious but I’m not going to name people until we get further down the track – but they are not going to get away with that.
“They are presiding over a damn mess in an industry they know stuff all about, and I’m not going to have them running around saying what we are going to do. Our industry participants are being led down the garden path.
“If our people are not smart enough to work that out already, what can we do for them? We have to wait for the submissions date to close on the 19th of October, but in the meantime, I have a team working on the chronological program, and that doesn’t have to wait until the consultations are in.
“To an extent, the consultations will shape it, but we are not waiting around for that because we are working on the program as we speak. The submissions are being analysed as they come in now. We just need to have them all in.
“I also have to work on the resources to do the teamwork to get this thing up and running. This is all uncharted territory as nothing was budgeted for that. I know I have to get those resources, get the team ready and get those things done. And have it all in place as fast as I possibly can.”
And when pressed on RITA Peters responded, “I’m not talking publicly on RITA because I don’t want to have people torpedoing me on what’s happening next.”
