Premier backs in V’landys amid fresh Racing NSW integrity allegations

NSW Premier Chris Minns has expressed his confidence in Racing NSW’s leadership after fielding and largely deflecting allegations about the regulator’s conduct and whether chief executive Peter V’landys interfered in a stewards’ inquiry.

Independent MP Mark Latham used a parliamentary estimates hearing on Wednesday to put forward a series of concerns he held about the conduct of Racing NSW and V’landys in particular.

During a third round of questioning from Latham, Minns was asked if he had confidence in the Racing NSW CEO, to which he replied he did.

Earlier, Latham had tabled a transcript of a 2021 stewards’ inquiry involving former Mudgee Race Club chair Colleen Walker. He read from the transcript and detailed then-chief steward Marc Van Gestel, indicating that the recommendations of the stewards’ inquiry involving Mrs Walker would be run past V’landys.

Latham then asked the Premier twice whether he would inquire if this was common practice at Racing NSW.

Minns invited Latham to put any allegation he had regarding the conduct of senior racing officials to Racing Minister David Harris, who will front estimates on Friday September 6.

“There’s a few suppositions presented as facts, Mr Chair. This happens all the time, apparently. And a whole bunch of witnesses that haven’t been presented to me and haven’t been presented to the committee as presenting factual evidence as to a third party who’s not here to defend himself,” Minns said.

“I just make the point, obviously, this should go to the Minister for Racing. You had an opportunity to question Mr V’landys a couple of weeks ago. I’m curious as to why none of this information was presented then.

“And I’m worried that it might be an opportunity to slander him without the ability for him to defend himself. Because you are subject to parliamentary privilege at the moment in here, aren’t you?” he asked Latham.

At his recent appearance at the Rosehill Select Committee, V’landys emphatically denied he had ever interfered with stewards’ inquiries.

“In the 20 years I have been at Racing NSW I have not interfered – and I want to say this under oath – in any stewards’ inquiry,” he said.

“The only time that I ever say anything at a stewards’ inquiry is to ensure that the participant gets due process and natural justice, and that they are given every opportunity to defend themselves. So to say that I interfere in stewards’ inquiries is completely false and quite untrue.”

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Latham and V’landys had heated exchanges during that hearing on August 9.

Latham returned to his tabled stewards’ transcript again later at Wednesday’s estimates hearing, claiming it was just one of what he said were many examples of inquiries not being impartial and independent.

*NSW Independent MP Mark Latham. (Image: NSW Parliament estimates hearing)*

“Will you now undertake, given the high standard you set before the election for integrity matters, for the Racing Minister to investigate this problem at Racing NSW?” he asked the Premier.

Minns again fobbed away the question.

“Well, again, you’ve put a series of propositions and dressed them up as facts and then demanded that I submit to an inquiry by the government,” he said.

“I can’t, I’ve got no way of validating whether that’s the case or not. You’ve suggested that they’re not impartial, that there’s been some kind of, well, the implication is some kind of nefarious input from senior figures in Racing NSW. That’s not good enough for me to demand an inquiry.

“This transcript doesn’t imply corruption or nefarious conduct by itself. We’re relying on your word.”

Latham, who is on the Rosehill Select Committee which is looking into the broader landscape of racing in NSW, raised several other allegations which he said were made by current and former staff on Racing NSW in submissions to that inquiry.

Minns was also asked by Latham whether V’landys’ reported salary of $1.5 million would be referred to the remuneration tribunal.

“I’m not going to commit to investigating on the basis of uncorroborated information that you provided at the beginning of your questions, other than to say that there’s systems in place, regulators in place, and independent bodies that are responsible for administering a whole range of agencies, including Racing NSW,” Minns said.

Earlier, Minns defended his government’s approach when it came to the Australian Turf Club’s Rosehill proposal.

He conceded he had been friends with ATC head of corporate affairs and government relations Steve McMahon for over 20 years but that had not played any role in his discussions with the ATC.

“I don’t want anyone to be left with the impression that, yes, he was a friend of mine and is a friend of mine, but also he had that position maybe a decade before the NSW government was elected in March of 2023,” Minns said.

“It’s a senior position within the ATC and it wouldn’t be unusual for me to meet either him or the person in his equivalent position in any one of many other government agencies that I would meet, run into, talk to, under any circumstances.”

Pressured by Upper House opposition leader Damien Tudehope on the decision to announce the Rosehill plans in December, before the ATC members had been consulted via a vote, Minns said it was the best option available.

“I think we all felt that we would be damned if we did or damned if we didn’t,” he said,

“If it stayed inside government and it was a secret discussion between the ATC and the NSW government and then eventually it leaked because it’s a big organisation… notwithstanding confidentiality that would be signed, then there’d be a sense from the racing community and perhaps others that they weren’t in the loop, that they didn’t know about it.”

“So the reason we made an announcement about it was to be transparent. I do remember that press conference and I remember saying very specifically that there’d be a lot of work to do between now and then.”

He reiterated that the ATC members would have the final say in any decision.

“I’d just make the point that we are not taking the rights away from ATC members. The reason we’ve embarked on this process, this unsolicited proposal from the ATC and a member vote of ATC members is to give them their democratic right over the land as members that they own,” he said.

“I know it would be far more convenient for the Liberal Party to suggest that we were going to take it from them, that we were going to grab that land, that we were going to build housing on it, but we’re not.”

“This will be up to members of the ATC. And if, in the end, they decide that they don’t want to go ahead with it, we won’t go ahead with it.”