Cassy O'Connor | Greens Leader
In yet another embarrassing display in Question Time this morning, Minister Ogilvie floundered over more serious questions about racing integrity and animal welfare in the industry.
The Greens asked the disinterested Racing Minister about the well-known mateship between key industrial harness and greyhound trainers. We know neglected horses, who have reached their use by date, are sent on to be killed, butchered and fed to brutalised dogs.
This is the Tasmanian racing circle of death.
We presented photos to Parliament of ex-harness racing horses being led to their death, of strung up carcasses, of butchered bodies and entrails at a major Tasmanian greyhound trainer’s property.
This is the brutality of an industry, that somehow-still-Minister Ogilvie claims has “never been in better shape”.
The stink that surrounds racing industry oversight and this Minister grows by the day. Serious allegations raised in Parliament mount, and Madeleine Ogilvie’s role – or vacated Ministerial space – are at the centre.
Both Madeleine Ogilvie and the Office of Racing Integrity have lost the confidence of industry participants, animal welfare advocates, the Greens, the Labor opposition and the crossbench.
How bad does it have to get before Jeremy Rockliff sacks his useless Racing Minister?