🔒 🔒 Racing Minister Harris’s estimates answers reveal limits of Racing NSW oversight

Parliamentary estimates have exposed the narrow scope of ministerial scrutiny over Racing NSW, with Racing Minister David Harris repeatedly directing questions about projects, funding and land back to the regulator.

As the NSW thoroughbred industry awaits the release of the Hazzard Review, Harris has reiterated that Racing NSW operates independently of government, while declining to answer a series of questions about the regulator’s governance and infrastructure program.

Answers to questions on notice from August’s parliamentary budget estimates hearing have highlighted the limitations of ministerial oversight under the Thoroughbred Racing Act, the legislation at the centre of Brad Hazzard’s review.

Harris confirmed the NSW government was considering the report but offered no timetable for its publication, despite being asked whether it would make its recommendations public ahead of the state election in March 2027.

The review was commissioned after a parliamentary inquiry into the proposed sale of Rosehill.

Hazzard’s role has been to examine the relevance of the Act, which establishes Racing NSW as the controlling body for thoroughbred racing and provides that it is not subject to direction or control by or on behalf of the state government.

That statutory independence was repeatedly invoked in the minister’s responses to questions about Racing NSW’s handling of public funding, its dealings with race clubs and the conduct of its senior leadership.

The hearing also brought scrutiny to the Racing for the Regions program, following a performance audit by the NSW Auditor-General into the administration of grants to non-government entities.

The questions raised concerns about project delays, funding decisions and arrangements involving club-owned land, while Harris’s answers largely referred responsibility back to Racing NSW or the former government.

Asked whether he was confident that outstanding racecourse infrastructure developments would meet the timelines provided to the Auditor-General, Harris said the Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport was monitoring the delivery of the remaining projects in line with Racing NSW’s response to the audit recommendations.

The questions alleged that a newly developed stable block at Scone remained unused four months after its opening, while the audit’s reported timetable anticipated completion of 300 stables there and at Gosford by December 2026, with Cessnock scheduled for October.

Harris was also asked whether he knew that an $8 million Gosford stable project had been abandoned and whether he had approved its cancellation.

“I am advised: This is a matter for Racing NSW,” he responded.

Similar answers were provided to questions alleging that clubs had been asked to transfer freehold land and that proceeds from a Gosford land sale had been used to fund track refurbishments.

The exchanges once again raise questions about how far the government can scrutinise the use of public money once funding has been allocated to an industry authority operating under a statutory framework that protects it from ministerial direction.

Harris said the former government approved Racing for the Regions projects as part of the 2021/22 NSW budget, referring questions about unsuccessful funding applications from Newcastle and Murrumbidgee Turf clubs to that decision.

On delays to payments for Tamworth upgrades, he said the department paid staged grants once it had received and assessed the required documentation under the funding deed.

The minister’s responses also left questions unresolved about Racing NSW’s executive leadership, as the Hazzard report remains under consideration.

Harris was asked whether he would release the review immediately if Peter V’landys resigned, amid questions about the chief executive’s future and the possibility that the report could recommend future changes to the role.

Asked whether Racing NSW chair Saranne Cooke retained his confidence, the minister described her as “an experienced board chair and director”.

The unanswered questions are significant in the context of the Hazzard Review, which could inform future policy on the relationship between government, Racing NSW and the clubs that underpin the state’s thoroughbred industry.

The two aspects outside the scope of the Hazzard Review were the provisions of the Act that establish Racing NSW as a body corporate independent of government and those relating to thoroughbred racing industry funding arrangements.

Until its recommendations are released, the industry remains without a public account of whether the existing legislative arrangements should be retained, amended or replaced.

The government’s consideration of the report also leaves political parties preparing for the 2027 election without access to its findings, a point raised directly during estimates.

For now, Harris’s answers make clear that the government is monitoring the delivery of Racing for the Regions projects, but continues to distinguish that oversight from direct intervention in Racing NSW’s decisions.