Sharpe suspended from upper house as pressure mounts for the release Hazzard review

The NSW government’s upper house leader, Penny Sharpe, has been suspended from the Legislative Council for refusing to table Brad Hazzard’s review of the Thoroughbred Racing Act 1996.  

The NSW opposition moved to have Sharpe held in contempt and suspended as the review delay continues.

The upper house voted 21-14 on Thursday to suspend standing and sessional orders, clearing the way for Wes Fang to move the contempt motion against the leader of the government.

Sharpe was suspended until the end of Thursday’s sitting, with a deadline of 4 pm Friday to release the report.

The dispute centres on the government’s treatment of the review as a Cabinet document. Fang’s motion says the government failed to comply with orders to produce it on August 5 and September 23.

During the September 23 censure debate, the deputy leader of the government said the report was under cabinet consideration.

Fang’s motion argues the review does not reveal cabinet’s actual deliberations and should therefore be released.

Sharpe opposed the procedural motion.

“We do not believe that we have, in any way, not provided the documents that we are required to under the standing orders,” she said. “I make the point yet again that there are over 30 bills to deal with and three weeks left of the Parliament.”

Fang questioned why the government had withheld the review while Racing NSW replaced Peter V’landys with Graeme Hinton as chief executive.

He pointed to Hinton’s description of the review in the Australian Financial Review as a legislative review proposing minor regulatory tweaks.

“If the latter is correct, and Mr Hinton is right, then there is no reason why the government should not have provided this report already,” Fang said.

Independent MP Mark Latham also urged the government to release the review, arguing its legislative program had no room for racing reform before the next election.

“There’ll be no legislation, no reform this side of the March election. So, why not release it?” he said.

Latham said the leadership change at Racing NSW was positive and that industry groups had reunited after the Rosehill sale controversy.

“There’s peace in our time, peace in our time in the racing industry,” he said.

Hazzard, a former NSW health minister, delivered the report in late July. By late August, it was in a Cabinet process.

At budget estimates, Racing Minister David Harris said: “I will, once it’s been through the processes, it’ll be released.”

The review’s terms cover governance structures, stakeholder consultation and transparency, and industry viability, including in regional NSW. The terms excluded the provisions establishing Racing NSW as a body independent of government and those governing industry funding.