Racing must seize lifeline

‘‘You can understand why there’s been some derision from Peters’ critics about the prospect of a TAB sale. Here’s the chance for them to loudly enjoy his newfound liking for foreign ownership.’’

Winston Peters brandishes the Messara report and declares the racing industry to be in a downward spiral that’s terminal without emphatic interventions. It is hard to disagree, and the racing minister is fully entitled to his tone of urgency.

But the trap here is to fall into the line of thinking that goes ‘‘We must do something. This is something. So this is what we must do’’.

Scrutiny of the report by Australian racing figure John Messara must be swift, not scant.

Which may be a temptation. Contained in Messara’s report are proposals that will strike some as redemptive, some as repellent. This raises the possibility that, rather than being seen as demanding the chore of genuine, difficult consideration or compromise, it is all given the glancing attention of a declaration of war, whereupon the real battle becomes an unedifying, purely political one, ultimately to be either pushed through, or entirely rejected, by whichever side wins. That won’t do.

Messara rightly urges one very tough call. That New Zealand has too many race tracks has been acknowledged for half a century, but attempts to do something about it have been mired in puggy patch protectionism.

The proposed closure of 20 of the 48 venues nationwide would hurt hard those smaller communities for which these tracks have traditionally been significant assets for community cohesion. But when the alternative is death by decrepitude – a lingering demise that may itself be harming the regional and national recovery of the industry – then euthanising them becomes the better option.

The reassurance that the small clubs can still carry on by holding their meetings at the remaining tracks give rise to several questions. What of training facilities? Or the capacity of the surviving tracks to handle the extra meetings?

Not for nothing are we seeing plans for allweather tracks at Cambridge, Awapuni and Riccarton. Make what you will of the fact that funding is to come from a source not a million miles away from Peters’ sphere of influence – the Provincial Growth Fund.

Outsourcing TAB commercial activities to an international operator (surely Australian) on the grounds that the TAB is simply too small-scale is certainly an emphatic measure and may prove defensible. But it is open to criticisms that it’s akin to putting the industry on steroids; a boost that comes with serious downsides.

Balance the speculation about what Aussie companies might be willing to pay for a licence to control betting on New Zealand races with the implications of them as overlords for broadcasting rights and race timetabling.

You can understand why there’s been some derision from Peters’ critics about the prospect of a TAB sale. Here’s the chance for them to loudly enjoy his newfound liking for foreign ownership.

These are all issues that any industry with a shred of survival instinct, and taxpayer watchdogs, must give serious attention. But to treat it as a take-it-or-leave-it deal is to fail to appreciate that it’s a lifeline and the only one on offer.

Yes, the lifeline needs to be seized. But first it needs to be attached to something that will take the weight.