The price of transparency – RQ document details cost of Gold Coast track repair

A transparency measure unique to the Queensland racing industry has revealed that Racing Queensland paid $440,000 to Evergreen Turf Australia to repair track damage caused in the lead-up to the 2025 Magic Millions raceday.

The incident, which saw a section of the track near the home turn poisoned, grabbed national attention as police investigated. A key-lead-up meeting was moved while the feature meeting proceeded, only to be called off following rain on raceday. No one has been charged over the track damage.

Evergreen Turf was called in to help remedy the urgent issue and it can be revealed it cost Racing Queensland $440,000 to engage their services.

That is one of 268 individual contracts detailed in the 2025 Racing Queensland contract disclosure report, which RQ must disclose under its transparency requirements.

Any contract worth more than $10,000 is publicly revealed, with $54.2 million of total expenses for RQ declared across 2025.

The state government transparency condition was brought in 2017 and is the only one of its kind in Australia. Because RQ is a statutory body, it must comply with the Queensland Procurement Policy, which sets out disclosure requirements.

Procurement rules also apply in both Western Australia and Tasmania but with none of the disclosure responsibilities which fall to RQ.

Transparency of spending in principal racing authorities (PRAs) has become a topic of discussion in recent years, especially as the amount of income collected through race fields fees has increased.

While there is mandatory reporting of all contracts in excess of $10,000 in Queensland, in NSW, the public can only request such information via the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW).

There is no register in Victoria and South Australia, while Tasracing has some transparency requirements through annual reports.

The largest cost on the RQ contract disclosure report was two contracts worth $20 million for AON Risk Services for insurance purposes.

It also incurred $4.8 million in outside broadcast costs with Sky Channel, while RQ’s partnership with News Corp cost the racing body $2.75 million.

The Brisbane Racing Club charged RQ $1.86 million for maintenance of Deagon training facilities, while media and marketing buyer Co.Gency invoiced $1.76 million.  

The contract disclosure report also revealed that Mary Collier, who is heading up the implementation of the Queensland Racing Review’s recommendations, was contracted to be paid $220,000 for her role.

The report also detailed the $54,154 in electricity costs for the operations of the lights at Gold Coast Turf Club as well as the $75,000 spent on the Queensland Thoroughbred Awards.

Speaking of transparency, The Straight’s advertising partnership with RQ, worth $11,000 in 2025, was also disclosed.