Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (10:00): These are words I never thought I would say: congratulations to the Liberals and shame on Labor. Recently Tasmanian Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff did something remarkable. He acknowledged that greyhound racing is an industry built on cruelty, injury, death and wastage and that no amount of self-regulation can make a blood sport humane. Meanwhile the Labor opposition and shadow racing minister Dean Winter have decided to throw themselves in front of reform in a spectacular display of political opportunism. Rather than standing up for animals or taxpayers, they are fighting tooth and nail to protect an industry that kills dogs for gambling profits. This is not just cruel, it is irresponsible, because Tasmania’s greyhound racing industry receives more than double the per capita funding of other Australian jurisdictions. While Labor is arguing that propping up gambling and animal cruelty is more important than spending this money to help people who are struggling with housing, health care and cost-of-living pressures, they expect us to believe they have made this decision to stand with the working class. I think it is deeply insulting to suggest that the working class does not have compassion for animals. You know things have gone badly wrong when the Liberals are leading Labor on animal protection. Australians from across the political spectrum want greyhound racing to go, and if the Allan Labor government want to avoid the embarrassing and out of touch mistakes of their Tasmanian counterparts, they should call time on this shameful practice in our state too.