Tuesday, 28 October 2025

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (13:32): As the gambling-fuelled carnival of cruelty to horses gears up for another season, I am disturbed at recent allegations that Racing Victoria’s top vet was pressured and coerced into allowing horses with a high risk of catastrophic injury to race. Dr Grace Forbes lodged an application for an order to stop bullying with the Fair Work Commission. She says she was asked to be ‘flexible’ in her assessments and that this could only mean one thing: Racing Victoria officials wanted horses to pass the veterinary safety protocols regardless of whether they were fit to race. While these allegations will need to be investigated by the commission, it is clear that horses are catastrophically injured regularly on Australia’s racetracks. The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses’ Deathwatch report reveals that at least 175 racehorses died in the 2024–25 racing year, the highest since recording started a decade ago. Meanwhile the gambling industry that drives and thrives on this animal cruelty is costing us billions. Wagering losses have been increasing steadily over time, and despite a slight dip at the start of the pandemic, in 2022–23 Australians lost $8.4 billion on wagering, a number that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says is notably higher than the past two decades. For these reasons and more, like a growing number of people around the state and the country, next week I will be saying nup to the cup.