[ad_1]
The Detail is a daily news podcast produced for RNZ by Press room and is posted on Stuff with permission. Click on this link to subscribe to the podcast.
Horse racing has lost its biggest champion to Winston Peters out of politics, but his successor has promised to complete reforms aimed at reviving the industry.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Grant Robertson has taken the reins and said there is a lot to do at work.
As one of the biggest racing weeks of the year, Cup Week in Canterbury ends, The detail discusses the state of the industry with two key players: announcer, horse owner and driver Sheldon Murtha and Sir Peter Vela, former president of thoroughbred auction house, New Zealand Bloodstock and owner of Pencarrow Stud in Waikato.
Murtha says a dedicated careers minister is not needed and the government should not pump more money into the industry, after the $ 72.5 million emergency package.
READ MORE:
* The racing industry is desperate to return Winston Peters to government
* Election 2020: Winston Peters, the kingmaker, retreats to his past
* New Zealand Trotting Cup 2020: Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen go seven in a row in Sires’ Stakes
ROSA WOODS / Things
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Grant Robertson has taken over as racing minister.
“It’s been inflicted on New Zealand from the past, it’s a bit like racing in their happy days: 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 massive, not so much these days. The racing industry has been very lucky to have a minister of racing for the past three years who has saved them, and it is not the first time that Winston Peters has done so with funds and handouts. “
Murtha says the industry cannot expect or guarantee any such support in the future.
The $ 1.6 billion industry was in the midst of a series of reforms meant to get it back on track when the pandemic hit, bringing the industry to the “brink of insolvency,” according to Peters.
He said support was a matter of urgency to help him rebuild. Around 15,000 people are employed in the sector and around 60,000 more in indirect jobs. When he announced the emergency package in May, Peters said that every part of the industry, from horsemen to veterinarians to breeders who produced world-class livestock, faced an unprecedented threat.
Several years of poor performance led to a report in 2018 that pointed to a state of grave discomfort. The report led to sweeping reforms with new legislation, a review by the TAB betting agency, track closures and updates.
Murtha says the report was put into practice as a strategy to realign the races and prepare them for the future, without making the mistakes that had been made in the past.
“Reports dating back to the 1970s have been saying the same thing, and the industry ignored them,” he says.
