Angry members of the greyhound racing fraternity plan to bring their sport to a halt in NSW if the Racing Minister, George Souris, does not talk to them about altering an agreement that is costing the industry millions of dollars in lost revenue.
The 99-year inter-code agreement, which the greyhound industry signed in 1997, fixes the division of the TAB revenue distribution at 13 per cent for the dogs, 17 per cent for harness racing and 70 per cent for the thoroughbreds. But the greyhound industry says it now generates more than 20 per cent of wagering turnover.
The agreement remains in effect despite a report commissioned by the previous Labor government recommending in 2008 that it be amended.
The Cameron report said: ''The three racing codes should agree to amend the inter-code agreement to provide that returns to each code from TAB distributions are in proportion to the percentage of wagering generated by each code; in the absence of such an agreement, the government should override the inter-code agreement.''
Tony Gannon, a spokesman for the Our Fair Share greyhound action group, said recent meetings of angry racing participants had voted to withdraw their dogs from events between August 20 and September 3 if there was no meaningful dialogue with the government about implementing the Cameron recommendation.
Mr Souris has said he has no intention of intervening in a commercial agreement that was willingly entered into by all parties.
Mr Gannon said hundreds of industry participants had attended meetings or sent messages of support and he believes they could make dogs meetings impossible to stage if they went on strike.
The chairwoman of Greyhound Racing NSW, Eve McGregor, recently told The Greyhound Recorder she would keep making representations to have the Cameron report recommendation implemented, but believed there was no point in taking legal action or going on strike.
