Jane Howlett,Minister for Racing
Animal welfare is of the upmost importance to the Tasmanian majority Liberal Government and claims from the Greens that we are not doing enough when it comes to animal welfare, are deliberately misleading.
When it comes to animal welfare we are investing more money than ever before into a range of measures including:
- The Greyhound Adoption Program, which is budgeted to receive a record net $467,000 in the current financial year;
- A commitment of $60,000 in funding to Brightside Farm Sanctuary over the past two years for the re-homing of greyhounds;
- Tasracing continues to spend more than 2 per cent of total stakes directly on equine welfare measures and both horse racing codes contribute one per cent of total prizemoney to support Off The Track, which facilitates the transition of horses from racing to equestrian or breeding homes; and
- In total more than $370,000 has been committed to Off the Track in the current financial year through contributions from the industry and Tasracing.
Earlier this year I jointly announced with the Premier that a portion of the 80 per cent of the revenue generated by the Point of Consumption tax would flow through to additional animal welfare measures.
The Leader of the Greens did not support this Bill when it came before Parliament last year, yet they are the loudest in signalling their virtue on animal welfare.
In the interests of consistency I look forward to seeing how the Greens will reconcile their failure to support the point of consumption tax, while at the same time arguing for the proceeds of the tax to go to animal welfare.
