By Greyhounds Australasia CEO CHERIE NICHOLL

At the Greyhounds Australasia Board meeting in August, the new GA National Rules were endorsed.

The project has been a focus for GA and representatives from each jurisdiction making up the Project Team for the last 10 months.

While there have been changes to the national rules over the years, this is the first complete review in at least 15 years.

The National Rules review sought to address a range of both historical and emerging issues, but the main purpose was to:

• improve the structure of the GARs.
• make the GARs easier to read for people in the greyhound racing industry; and
• simplify and/or modernise the language used in the rules where possible.

The objectives of the revised Greyhounds Australasia Rules are to:

• promote, enhance, and protect the welfare of greyhounds.
• regulate greyhound racing so that public confidence in its integrity is upheld.
• provide for a level playing field and greater transparency in greyhound racing.
• record the rules which, together with the Local Rules of Controlling Bodies, regulate greyhound racing in Australia and New Zealand; and
• promote the long-term viability of greyhound racing and the conduct of it in a socially responsible manner.

All industry stakeholders had the opportunity to provide feedback to the proposed changes through an extended consultation period, and all feedback was considered in the finalisation of the new rules.

The new National Rules will take effect on Monday 31^st January 2022.

The next few months, leading into the adoption of the National Rules will be a period of familiarisation. This commenced on Monday 13th September 2021 and will run through until Sunday 30th January 2022. This will allow time for participants to become familiar with the rule changes and for jurisdictions to take necessary steps to enable the adoption of the new national rules.

To assist with familiarisation of the new National Rules in advance of adoption on Monday 31^st January 2022, jurisdictions will hold forums for participants. The forums aim to address queries to support the move to the updated GA National Rules. For participants in NSW, Queensland, and Tasmania, online Familiarisation Sessions will be advertised for bookings in due course. A Greyhounds Australasia representative and a Jurisdiction subject matter expert will be in attendance for each session.

In the News section of the GA website (galtd.org.au) documents are available to support understanding of the new rules. The documents include:

• The consultation and rulemaking process
• The new GA National Rules
• Explanatory memorandum (detailing the changes)
• Summary of feedback submissions received through the consultation process

Please contact your local Jurisdiction if you have any queries.

Some months ago, I highlighted a significant body of work that GA is undertaking to better understand our industry from the perspective of participants.

This work aims to explore what participants like, would like to see improved, what is expected from GA as well as what we could do to attract new people to our industry.

Every participant will receive an email with a questionnaire that is very quick and easy to complete.  GA is very keen to have as many of you complete the survey as possible. It will help GA and the member jurisdictions make decisions about the future of the industry and how we can best support participants. So please keep an eye out for the survey. It will take about 20 minutes to complete.

For now, please keep well, there appears to be light at the end of this Covid19 tunnel.