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Speaker 1: Boy, is this a big story in business but also

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Speaker 1: for the people who are involved. Greyhound racing will be

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Speaker 1: phased out over the next twenty months. It's an industry

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Speaker 1: worth one hundred and fifty million dollars a year. The

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Speaker 1: racing Minister Winston Peters, was on the show earlier. He

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Speaker 1: told me this shouldn't come as a surprise to the industry.

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Speaker 2: They shouldn't have been blindsided, given that there have been

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Speaker 2: three of yous two thousand and thirteen, two seventeen, twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty one, which all pointed to the need to act

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Speaker 2: in the interest of the dogs. And don't forget, when

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Speaker 2: we're talking about dogs, we're talking about serious injuries here

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Speaker 2: someday so that they've got to be put down. And

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Speaker 2: that sort of record was just too high.

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Speaker 1: Edward Reynolds, the CEO of Greyhound Racing end zed he's

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Speaker 1: with me this evening. Edward, good evening to you.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, good evening, Ryan, good evening, listeners.

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Speaker 1: You sound a bit upset.

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Speaker 3: Oh, look, we're clearly we'd never so been very disappointed

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Speaker 3: with the decision, but you know it has come as

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Speaker 3: a surprise to us. But we're just looking to process.

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Speaker 3: But fairly our concerns are with putting the right support

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Speaker 3: programs around the fifty four people that derive their income

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Speaker 3: and livelihood from the industry. Say yeah, that that's our

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Speaker 3: immediate concern is the people.

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Speaker 1: You say, you didn't see it coming. But there have

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Speaker 1: been three reviews over ten years and they've all been

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Speaker 1: highly critical. They've made significant recommendations and the Minister says

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Speaker 1: you haven't followed through.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not right. So there have been three reviews,

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Speaker 3: they have identified areas of concern and if we look

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Speaker 3: at the progress over the last three years, it's been significant.

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Speaker 3: The last significant review on twenty twenty Robertson reviewed raised

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Speaker 3: concerns around the youth in Asia of dogs after their

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Speaker 3: careers were finished, also race concern around the traceability of

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Speaker 3: dogs after their careers, the rehoming and the level of

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Speaker 3: race euthanasians. So in the last two years significant steps

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Speaker 3: have been taken. And if we look at the last

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Speaker 3: independent report on from the Racing Integrity Board, who have

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Speaker 3: been appointed by the government to independently monitor our performance,

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Speaker 3: the last report that went in noted that the progress

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Speaker 3: was very good.

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Speaker 1: The twenty seventeen report by the High Court Judge that

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Speaker 1: found there were high numbers of unaccounted for dogs. Where

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Speaker 1: were these dogs going?

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Speaker 3: Well, this was at that time that there was probably

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Speaker 3: dogs when their careers were finished that the people. A

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Speaker 3: number of dogs were being euthanized.

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Speaker 1: At that point, hundreds of dogs.

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Speaker 3: So we now have a one hundreds.

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Speaker 1: Of dogs were being euthanized because they just weren't good

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Speaker 1: at racing anymore of that child.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So we now have a euthanasi policy rhyme where

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Speaker 3: a dog cannot be euthanized for any other reason apart

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Speaker 3: from welfare.

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Speaker 1: Do you see how that's a bit of a problem?

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Speaker 3: Home six hundred last year we rehomed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand that in the last year or two

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Speaker 1: you've done something to turn it around. But prior to that,

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Speaker 1: and it's not that long ago, is that? Do you

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Speaker 1: think you've dug your own grave?

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Speaker 3: Here? Look, hindsight's great and at the end of the day,

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Speaker 3: we can only you know, we've got to live in

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Speaker 3: the present and I can lock him in the eye.

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Speaker 3: So that we now in many areas, lead the racing

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Speaker 3: industry of New Zealand in terms of animal welfare. We're

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Speaker 3: the only racing code where the animal has a committed

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Speaker 3: commitment that has a life once it's racing career is finished.

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Speaker 3: So every dog that's raced goes into where rehoming program

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Speaker 3: and is re homed. And it's said last year we

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Speaker 3: re home six hundred and seventy three dogs and we

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Speaker 3: bread it just over five hundred. So you know, it

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Speaker 3: was a significant achievement and it highlights our commitment to

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Speaker 3: welfare in the interest of the doll.

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Speaker 1: And now you've got twenty months to re home twenty

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Speaker 1: nine hundred do you think that's possible?

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Speaker 3: Twenty months? Now, how long would it take. That's the

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Speaker 3: issues that need to be worked through. As so this

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Speaker 3: decisions has been announced today. We just have to process

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Speaker 3: that and consider the implications. But from our perspective, this

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Speaker 3: will be a change to the Racing Industry Act, so

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Speaker 3: we clearly will be looking to outline through the Select

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Speaker 3: Committee process what we believe is that there is a

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Speaker 3: future for grayhound racing that we have taken.

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Speaker 1: Are you going to lawyer up?

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Speaker 3: And I think we will certainly go through a select

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Speaker 3: committee process and outline and why we believe there is

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Speaker 3: a place for grayhand racing and why we believe it

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Speaker 3: should continue is if.

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Speaker 1: You don't get your way. If you don't get your way,

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Speaker 1: do you think we'll have black market racing.

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Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't believe that's a risk. But no,

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Speaker 3: I don't believe that's a risk, and certainly it's something

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Speaker 3: we wouldn't condone. We believe as a legitimate place for

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Speaker 3: grayhand racing. It's certainly where our efforts will be in

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Speaker 3: terms of talking to politicians and correcting some of the

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Speaker 3: misinformation that's out there, in terms of what we're doing

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Speaker 3: to try and ensure that the interest of the dog's

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Speaker 3: a paramount. Last year we had nine youth in Asias

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Speaker 3: from racing incidents.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen that.

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Speaker 3: Four years ago that level was sixty, but to put

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Speaker 3: it in perspective, we had thirty six thousand starts. Now

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Speaker 3: level was half what the Thoroughbred code was, So you know,

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Speaker 3: unfortunately there are some instances in racing where that will

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Speaker 3: happen that we have certainly worked hard to try and

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Speaker 3: get that level down. Our injury levels from a benchmark

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Speaker 3: perspective for lower than Australia.

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Speaker 1: All Right, we have to leave it there, but I

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Speaker 1: thank you very much for your time and best of

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Speaker 1: luck with that Select Committee. Process Edward Reynold, the Greyhound

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Speaker 1: Racing news in on CEO.

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