Letter to Qld Ministers

Dear Mr Fraser (& Ms Bligh , Mr Horan)

It is with interest that I watched the ABC program last night. Whilst I have empathy for the people in the racing industry who have been directly effected I think it is important that you consider some other issues from the non racing industry.

Sure they have some losses, but racing and therefore gambling is still going ahead, therefore revenue to the industry. As long as there is racing somewhere, gamblers will continue to bet, it would be interesting to see just how much the TAB revenue is down, I expect not by too much!! The only thing I can see it effecting is punters who would normally attend one of the effected race meetings, but they can still go to the TAB office and bet on another race somewhere. This is in total contrast to people outside the racing industry, who's whole livelihood has stopped and will continue to do so for many months. The media and government must move some of the emphasis away from racing and onto the rest of the industry, before it creates too large a rift

There are many people who are suffering really badly, we ourselves run a small riding school, and have had no income since Aug 26th, many other people are in the same position. Local saddlery shops are down 70% on revenue, water carriers, transport companies etc are amongst many businesses that have been hit. This is on top of a long drought pushing feed prices up, increase in interest rates, food a fuel costs. For many people this will be the final straw.
We accept that we will contract EI,but are very angry on the way this whole outbreak has been handled. We could accept it somewhat if there was a plan in place other than to make most of the industry an acceptable casualty of this war.

Just a small point, but is it possible that the reason the racing industry is getting preferential treatment is that the Minister responsible for the DPI is the same Minister that is responsible for the racing industry, a certain Mr Horan !! Conflict of interest???

If it is economic drivers that is effecting your decision making process, then please look closely at the figures, and you will see that the racing industry is worth only about half of the approx $9 billion that the equine industry as a whole to the Australian economy.

What is more important to you, whole communities, or an industry based solely on gambling. Communities such as ours are suffering, both economically and socially. There is anger and division,which will evolve at some point in the future to a mass public protest. The only thng that is holding this back at the moment is that most horse owners (unlike some racing trainers and the Gold Coast Turf Club) and following biosecurity recommendations and are not mixing with other horse owners.

I understand that the reason that this outbreak is here in the first place is the responsibility of the federal government, how the outbreak is handled will effect the reputation of the State government, and could easily flow on to anger at the Labour Party as a whole during this election year.

All we are asking is what is deemed to be a core Australian value of a fair go. Treat us at least as equals before public anger turns towards you and the racing industry.

Yours Sincerely
Stuart Myers