By Greyhounds Australasia CEO Cherie Nicholl

With our two largest jurisdictions under lockdown due to Covid 19, it is fortunate that our industry can continue to operate in NSW and VIC.

This is without doubt due to the commitment from the controlling bodies, the greyhound racing clubs and participants to practices and conduct that will keep all staff and participants safe and well.

Unfortunately, under stage 4 lockdown in NZ, greyhound racing is suspended at the time of writing.

There is no denying that staying the course in terms of the lockdown restrictions is incredibly challenging, but we need to do what it takes to ensure that the most vulnerable in our communities are protected. And minimise the spread of Covid19 so that our hospitals and other medical resources are not overwhelmed as we move to the targeted vaccination levels.

If you need support due to impacts of Covid19 through this time, please contact your controlling body for assistance.

The GA team is again working from home, which can be challenging but the aim is to ensure that our high standard of participant services is maintained.

In the last financial year, we saw increases in all services and indeed, a trending increase over the last 3 years:

In terms of the cost of these services to participants, FY22 will be the fourth year without an increase in the service fees. When inflation is taken into consideration, by not increasing fees for four years, in real terms holding the fees flat represents a decrease of 7% since FY17/18.

Since February, a team of subject matter experts from across the jurisdictions has been working very hard on the first comprehensive national policy review since 2005/2006 in the form of the GA Rules Review project.

Following a total of 24 weeks of consultation including an extension of two months to the consultation at the request of the OTBAs, that phase of the project closed on August 9. Since then, the project team has again reviewed the hundreds of submissions from all parts of our industry and the GA Rules Review recommendations are (at the time of writing) with the GA Board for review. Once the GA Board has endorsed the GA Rules Review, feedback on the submissions will be provided and the jurisdictions will work with their participants to ensure changes are clear in advance of adoption of the revised GA Rules.

This has been the first national project of its kind, with a cross functional project group made up of subject matter experts from the jurisdictions and consultation across every stakeholder group that makes up our industry. Sincere thanks to all those that participated through submissions on the proposed rule changes.

For many jurisdictions we have a challenging few months ahead as we continue to navigate Covid19, so please keep yourself and your loved ones safe.