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I'm sure you guys would be all over these stats during your meetings...but just in case I'll put them out there.

In Queensland alone during the years of 2006 - 2015 (a 10 year period), the average annual whelping average was 330.

But In 2016, just 124 litters were whelped & in 2017 up until October, the story certainly hasn't changed & looks likely to finish with a similar result (either just under or just over).

So in saying this, over the last 2 years, we are minus 400 litters on average or 2500 pups working off a 6.25 pup average per litter.

Now I'm not suggesting for one minute that we need to reach the levels during that 10 year period again, but IMO we need to whelp around 200-220 litters per year for this State to stay healthy.

The 5-month REBATE is nice...but it's not terrific. 12-15 at a minimum is the G-Spot.

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Yes Michael....we're both on the same page mate ;-)

Yes Steve. We gets stats every month in regards to retirement numbers and pups born. We have been saying for 12 months about breeding numbers. This is why the $250 per pup pup bond and logbook were not introduced. The panel were very very vocal against either being introduced. We told them that would stop breeding all together. Since Qric have realised something has to be done to get numbers up. We can thank rq for coming to the party as Qric couldn't waive any fees unless it went through cabinet.
As I said Steve the 5 months I believe is a starting point and I think will be reviewed and perhaps extended.

I had pay Freedom of Information last financial year to get any stat's that were proved to be wrong? If you could forward those monthly stats to me, I'm sure the entire QLD industry would also like to see them? Isn't that why QRIC was formed, because RQ couldn't keep those records?

That would be a great help to gauge how our industry will pick up in the future, and to see if this package has given confidence to the industry.

While we, as participants, obviously would be pleased to see some long overdue forward momentum, it should be accepted that we remain well short of prizemoney levels that were reaches in / around 2014/15. In addition to which, all evidence suggests that the Greyhound could remains the superior "betting product" and the start performer among the 3 racing codes.

The Press Release from RQ this week rightly recognised that the Greyhound code was the only one currently operating at a "profit"; so while the increases are welcome, there was little or nothing that could be done to STOP such an increase, if it was based on merit, and current fiscal performance.

Some incentives have been added (more specifically, some disincentives removed) from a breeding perspective; which again is rightly being recognised. While it is a start, it must not be forgotten that our numbers reached a critically low - and some would say near-catastrophic - level; and it is still going to take up to 2 years for the newly announced "incentives" (their words, not mine) to gain some real traction.

The key requirement now - as it has been for MANY recent years (including long prior to the "live baiting saga") is for additional, well thought-out, and properly designed TRACKS to be returned to us, as the Qld Greyhound Industry. Talk is cheap, and as others have indicated, beware of smoke and mirrors. I remain optimistic that we are on the "up" at last; and once the shackles are truly and properly removed, we should be seen by all as the vibrant and thriving code we once were!

I commend the Advisory Board and also the QGBOTA for the efforts and undoubtedly long hours that they have - and continue to - put in on behalf of the industry. The good fight is not yet won; so PLEASE - for us all - KEEP UP THE FIGHT! Do not succumb and fall silent until we get EVERYTHING that we have EARNED through our combined efforts. There is much, much more that we need (and "deserve").

Good Post Anthony,
You know why Racing Qld. treats the Greyhound Industry Sooooo Badly ?
Because they can !
You let them......Perhaps in most cases not intentionally.
Mostly due to your insecurity and ignorance of your rights and the law......
Now... if you believe that this little "Package" is pure coincidence and not due to the screaming noise that has been going on from this website ,and others.....then you are living in a fools paradise.
The QGBOTA [on their website] have just recently, been asking some very legitimate questions about the "Duty of care" that is being displayed by Racing Qld.towards the Greyhound Industry.....And just how... they are fulfilling their obligation to fairness ???

It has also come to light that there has been some "Creative Accounting "in relation to funds that were allocated for use by the Greyhound Industry to build their "Infrastructure" being diverted to other areas ?????
As far as You yourselves are concerned.... you have to deal with the things that you can effect....and the first of which is : Leaving aside this latest "Coincidence" do you feel by his results...that Mr. Cartwright is representing you in an effective manner......Some would say that there is ample evidence to suggest NOT......Perhaps he doesn't know how to be an effective representative.....Whatever the many possibilities including the more nefarious ones....The fact remains that you need strong AND TRANSPARENT representation.....Only You Lot can answer that question...... He is your rep....Was he voted in ??? or nominated by "others"......Perhaps his understanding of representation is to report back that the "Natives are getting VERY restless" on the internet and perhaps some form of "Package" should be "Cobbled Together" to shut them up....Hmmm?

My mail was that there was to be an announcement about a 8 MILLION dollar package specifically for the thoroughbreds to be announced at this time and no mention of anything else.....
It is a start but don't allow complacency to return...
YOU as an Industry need to be ENTIRELY CONFIDENT that you are being COMPETENTLY and more importantly DILIGENTLY represented by the very best person available....NOMINATED by YOU.....
Failing that... you need to voice your lack of confidence in the existing representative and request change....

Bear in mind: Nothing but evil lurks in the dark and Sunlight and TRANSPARENCY will always bring the fairest results.

The QGBOTA, quite rightly, are asking all the right questions and doing it in a way that is not aggressive or insulting to anyone and should be roundly applauded for doing so.....I admire them.
Their assertive stance should be mirrored by the whole industry and supported wholeheartedly !!!!

Because they were embarrassingly, pathetically, dismally, morally, painfully LOW, Kevvy?

To put it another way...if you were to calculate the yearly CPI increases since 2009 at an average of 2% per annum (& that's being kind), until the end of 2017 (9 years), and apply that to the 10 big ones, we'd now be owed $11,950,925.69 for been left in the wilderness.

But if the CPI average was calculated at 4%, the end figure over the same period would be $14,233,118.12. That's 14 million, two hundred & thirty three thousand, one hundred & eighteen dollars, & twelve cents.

That's how far behind the 8 ball we are, & that's not including how much ground the Greyhound industry of Queensland has lost through breeding due to the failed promises....& I bet my last dollar TAB turnover (where we're already out-doing the other codes) would be up considerably simply because one corner 457m straight starts are better punting proposition. End of story, & it's something the cronies need to be schooled up on. Oh & did I mention that they also make for safer racing.

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DEFINITION of 'Embezzlement'

Embezzlement is a form of white-collar crime where a person misappropriates the assets entrusted to him or her. In this type of fraud the assets are attained lawfully and the embezzler has the right to possess them, but the assets are then used for unintended purposes. Embezzlement is a breach of the fiduciary responsibilities placed upon a person.

" For the past year I have been telling anyone who will listen that the 2 great problems facing the greyhound industry were that participants were being cowered into fear by Racing Queensland and others as a legacy of the live baiting debacle, and that the sport was filled with the equivalent of small business owners and lacked a strong and united voice to put their case forcefully, and skilled passionate leaders who could march them forward into the sun.

To someone like me whod had nearly two decades of experience in organising workers and running campaigns it seemed blindly obvious that if they wished to move forward greyhound folk would have to band together, but to an industry long populated by a multitude of semi-hobbyists and torn asunder in the wake of widespread public opprobrium as a result of the callous act of a couple of cruel individuals who put a pig on a lure at a private training track, the idea of unity seemed like such a distant dream.

My take a year ago was that the greyhound industry was on the point of collapse, and that the sport needed a savior to step forward if it was to survive and thrive and prosper.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Or more correctly cometh 2 blokes and a sheila.

Stephen Lennon, Christine Goodwin and Sidney Goodwin are the trios names, and they are respectively the President, Secretary and Vice President of the Queensland Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association (GBOTA), and by stepping up to the plate when batters were needed and working cooperatively with their committee, industry participants and the control body boards they have breathed new life into the industry, quadrupled the representative organisations membership, and achieved things that barely year ago were not even imagined possible.

My first encounter with the triumvirate at the top of GBOTA was at the Racing Queensland annual meeting last year, and boy was I impressed. These people had done their homework and knew their stuff, had come to the meeting absolutely prepared, and presenting as a totally united and determined front prosecuted the case of their members with skill and great aplomb.

I was as impressed as hell, and Racing Queensland must have been too because they have delivered a large chunk of what the industry asked for and needed, and if the $3 million additional funding package announced for greyhound racing last week didnt include the much desired new track that whole industry has been waiting for, well all I can say is that you have to crawl before you walk, and just take a look at what you got.

Christine, Stephen and Sidney stand up and take a bow.

Youve done your members and your sport proud.

Congratulations to each of you.

You deserve it.

Great work. "