McGrath review into Queensland racing set for Doomben release

The long-awaited details of the Queensland Racing Review, conducted by a committee led by former Australian Turf Club chairman Matthew McGrath, are set to be published this Saturday.

The office of Racing Minister Tim Mander confirmed on Wednesday that Saturday’s Doomben race meeting will be the setting for the release of the report, two months after it was initially scheduled to be published.

An event has been scheduled for 9am to 10am AEST in the Vo Rogue Room, on the second level of the public grandstand. The event is free to attend, but requires a ticketed reservation.

The Minister had initially scheduled to unveil the report at a specially convened industry update event on October 13, but the event was cancelled at short notice.

It is believed agreement had yet to be reached at that stage on the report’s recommendations involving the impacts of a likely reduction in the Point of Consumption Tax (POCT) rate.

The current POCT rate of 20 per cent was introduced in December 2022 but racing industry and wagering companies have been campaigning for it to be lowered to 15 per cent.

While a reduction would be expected to boost turnover in the long term, there is likely to be a shortfall in revenue over the next couple of years. Who fills that shortfall will be a key interest point of the review outcome with 80 per cent of POCT revenue currently flowing back to Racing Queensland. There is assuming there is a change of the POCT rate, something which seems less likley than it was a couple of months ago.

McGrath was appointed to head the review with the help of fellow committee members Scott Neaves, Kym Daly and Lynette Keep.

The review, commissioned earlier this year, took significant industry feedback.

As well as the future of industry funding and taxation, the review is expected to outline infrastructure priorities for the three codes.

Separately, Mander has already begun the process of finding a replacement for departed Racing Queensland chairman Steve Wilson on the RQ board. RQ also needs to find a permanent solution for its vacant chief executive role, with Lachlan Murray having been acting in that position since February.