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Questions Without Notice Questions without notice are asked of Ministers and answered during Question Time.
Question without Notice - Asked on Tuesday 6 June 2006
Mr LAWLOR: My question is directed to the Minister for Public Works, Housing and Racing. Is the minister aware of any racing policy that the opposition has developed?
Mr SCHWARTEN: No, I am not. Hardly any surprise there. However, I am getting a little bit of an idea that the honourable member opposite is developing a keen interest. I congratulate him on his foray into the greyhound industry and the purchase of his dog, Tiger. May it win many more races. That is about where the favourable things stop.
The reality is that the honourable member said, 'When are you going to do something, Minister?' about the fact that prize money has gone down in greyhound racing. The reason-and he knows this, because the board told him-it has gone down primarily is that wagering has gone down. Instead of him saying, 'What am I going to do to fix it?' we would have thought that we could have got some policy framework from him. Does he, for example, want us to take money off doctors and give it to dogs? Is that his policy? It certainly was last time-that is, take it off country schools and give it to country racing.
The reality is that the decision taken by the Greyhound Racing Authority is independent of me and independent of government. It is an industry based decision. If he knows anything about racing at all- anything at all-he would know that the money that comes into the Greyhound Racing Authority comes from wagering. However, there has been a downturn in wagering. When he says that I should do something about it, I do not know what he suggests that I should do about it other than take money out of taxpayers' pockets, away from hospitals and away from infrastructure, and put it into greyhound racing.
Ms Spence interjected.
Mr SCHWARTEN: I take the interjection-to top up Tiger! The truth is that he places himself at risk whingeing about the fact that he is running for 100 bucks and at the same time saying that we should do something about it, indicating that perhaps we should cross-subsidise Apel for Tiger. There is an absence of any policy from those opposite in any of the areas that I represent of Housing, Public Works, the BSA and the RTA-not one skerrick of policy. There is not one skerrick of policy on racing that makes any sense, except to say that I should do something. I can hear that in any pub corner. If you cannot build a party, you cannot build a merger and you cannot build a policy, you cannot build infrastructure in Queensland and you cannot build a future for Queensland. The member opposite can sit there nodding like something we would see at the Ekka with his canned laughter all morning, but the truth is that if you cannot build a policy, how can you build any infrastructure in Queensland? If you cannot build a coalition, how can you build the trust of Queenslanders? If you cannot even build a party, what chance are you going to have to build any infrastructure in Queensland? Someone will put a ball in your mouth if you keep going like that, and that is all you do-sit there nodding, giving emphasis to what everybody knows of you: that there is nothing between your ears except that stupid big open mouth!
Last changed: [PUBLISHED_DATE] at 11:24 AM
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