A defiant Racing NSW CEO Peter V’landys has used the parliamentary Select Committee into Rosehill to hit back at “smears” by “cowards” which he said have been directed at him both personally and professionally during the inquiry.
In a febrile and sometimes explosive hearing at NSW Parliament House, V’landys came ready to meet the concerns raised over the conduct of he and Racing NSW put up by earlier witnesses.
He started off with a 15-minute opening statement, only cut short by a point of order from the committee as to its length, and then turned his attention to those who he says are trying to “get rid” of him in his position.
“I'm aware of an email that's going around that's basically saying this is your chance to get rid of V’landys, so make up whatever you can, put a submission in, doesn't matter if it's the truth, doesn't matter if it's lies, but just smear him,” he said.
“I don't think this inquiry, the intention is to smear people, it's to look into Rosehill.”
“I'm concerned that some people have made complete fabrications in this inquiry and I'd like to correct some of those falsehoods.”
Among the evidence he felt was false was that he had tried to prevent people from attending the inquiry, that the Rosehill idea had emanated from Racing NSW, that he had interfered with stewards’ enquiries and that he had used his position to end a BOBS scheme focussed on breeders.
He also wanted to submit a letter from “the Breeders’ Association” (although he didn’t specify which breeders’ association) sent to him on the eve of his appearance which he felt was in contempt of the inquiry.
He spoke of “wealthy breeders” being behind most of the smears, making an extraordinary claim as to why there might be a conspiracy against him.
“They want to get rid of me, so they can put horses into abattoirs,” he said, referencing Racing NSW’s ban on sending thoroughbreds to knackeries.
“Because it's no longer a commercial proposition to these people, no matter how old the horse is, they want to send it to a knackery. Well, we won't allow that!”
The most tense exchanges involved Independent MP Mark Latham, who had used his position in parliament to call for V’landys’s resignation earlier in the week.
Latham, an ATC member, breeder and owner, put a number of accusations to V’landys, including asking whether he had spoken to potential witnesses ahead of the inquiry beginning, something the CEO emphatically denied.
Under parliamentary privilege, no punches were pulled and things turned combative when Latham put a question about accusations of toxic culture of Racing NSW to the chief executive, including whether staff had been put under surveillance. Latham was quoting from private submissions to the Committee.
“Absolute rubbish,” V’landys replied, following up that Latham was doing the work of “wealthy breeders”.
“We're going to put the cheats and the liars and the undesirables out. Of course they're going to put submissions in,” V’landys said.
“There's been no complaints whatsoever about a toxic culture. In fact, we take pride that the culture of Racing NSW is very vibrant and happy. And I've never had a complaint from any person about the culture.”
“Mr Latham, you can smear me all you like, but there is absolutely zero credibility to what you're saying.”
Soon after the pair came to another heated exchange, which required the intervention of chair Scott Farlow.
Undeterred, Latham returned to questions about intimidation of trainers and V’landys continued his emphatic denials of wrongdoing.
Later in the hearing, Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst asked V’landys about his support for the whip as well as Racing NSW’s animal welfare practices.
She also asked him about rumours that he was involved in a settlement regarding a sexual harassment complaint. He answered that with an emphatic denial.
“Complete and utter rubbish. Again, it's a smear with no evidence whatsoever. I have never had a complaint against me for any situation at any time in my career,” he said.“And for someone to suggest that is the lowest form of life. And the other thing it does is it takes away credibility from people that genuinely do have complaints about people that they don't bring it forward. There has never, ever, ever, ever, ever been a complaint about me.”
Warwick Barr
He then levelled a complaint about the direction of the Committee inquiry.
“This is intended to look at the sale of Rosehill. So at the moment all it is a smear campaign with absolute zero evidence. There's no evidence that I've ever signed a disclosure agreement with any person.”
The Rosehill discussion almost seemed a side-show, but the Racing NSW CEO, who was accompanied to the hearing by his chief operating officer, Graeme Hinton, said he remained supportive of the process and said early due diligence from Racing NSW had identified the commercial uplift to be $23 billion over the next 35 years.
However, he said that Racing NSW had no appetite to take that revenue off the ATC.
“We've never wanted to seize the revenue, but we have said that we want to see the revenue spent on racing infrastructure,” he said.
“We don't want to see it spent on indulgence for members that contribute $6 million when the racing industry contributes $256 million. So it's got to be an equitable share on how the money is spent. And our view is that the majority should be invested so the ATC gets this revenue and not be reliant on gambling revenue.”
“There's been no complaints whatsoever about a toxic culture. In fact, we take pride that the culture of Racing NSW is very vibrant and happy. And I've never had a complaint from any person about the culture”- Racing NSW CEO Peter V'landys
V’landys said caution was required with how much discretion clubs had over their funding, pointing to previous failures, particularly around media rights, including the now defunct broadcaster TVN, which NSW used to operate in concert with Victoria.
“That investment was probably the worst investment the racing industry has ever made,” he said.
“It lost between $50 million to $100 million, and the reasons that these clubs are in such financial stress is because they lost so much money on their media rights.”
Bren O’Brien
He also said that Racing NSW’s role extended far beyond that as a regulator.
“We're not just a regulator, we're also the commercial operator of the industry. So we were the ones who negotiated for them to get an extra $30 million a year for media rights,” V’landys said.
“That's on top of all the other revenues that I've just told you about. So we have to set the strategic direction of the industry and at the moment we believe that we need to make it attractive for owners to invest in the industry.”
“And at the moment the owners are losing $100 million a year so we need to correct that disparity for them to continue to invest.”
“With no horses and no trainers and jockeys you don't have an industry. So the funding model at the moment is designed to distribute the maximum to participants. That's what it's designed to do and that's what it's doing.”
