The New South Wales premier, Mike Baird, is expected to backflip on his greyhound racing ban as his popularity crashes following sustained political and media pressure and a public backlash to the controversial move.
Baird has been tipped to announce the backdown following a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, which comes after a Monday night meeting of Nationals MPs, who were reportedly considering unseating party leader and the deputy premier, Troy Grant, if there wasn’t a policy reversal.
There is further speculation Baird’s expected backflip will help Grant’s situation, with both men having faced intense pressure and opposition since announcing the ban three months ago.
In August, Baird said the ban, under which greyhound racing would cease across NSW from 1 July, 2017, wasn’t about political point scoring but that he was trying to “do what is right”.
The decision to ban greyhound racing, made after a report found widespread cruelty and illegal activity within the industry, was criticised by industry as a kneejerk response that would have devastating effects on the 16,000 people estimated to be connected to greyhound racing.
The ban came after a special commission of inquiry report that found up to 68,000 “uncompetitive” greyhounds were slaughtered in the past 12 years and nearly one in five trainers used live animal baits.
Twenty-one of the 34 greyhound racing tracks in NSW are in regional areas.
Nationals MPs Katringa Hodgkinson, Kevin Humphries and Chris Gulaptis – who consistently argued the ban would devastate their regional electorates – crossed the floor to vote with Labor to oppose the bill but it passed following a 12-hour debate.
The Labor leader, Luke Foley, accused the premier of seeking to save his own skin with the expected backdown, and said if the speculation proved true, the Baird government needed to commit to a complete reversal of the ban.
“It can’t just be a stay of execution to get Troy Grant’s leadership off the hook this week,” Foley said.
But instead, it’s expected Baird will try to navigate out of the situation with a third option, such as extending the ban for a trial period while introducing tough industry standards, including harsher penalties for animal cruelty.
Owners would also be required to commit to “total life-cycle management” to end the practise of euthanising dogs no longer racing, the Australian reported.
A report by Greyhounds Transition Taskforce head John Keniry was due to be handed to the government on Monday and presented to Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
A recent Newspoll showed Baird’s approval rate had slumped from 61% to 39% since December due to a number of issues, including the ban on greyhound racing and Sydney’s “lockout” laws.
Speculation about a backflip began over the weekend and a spokesman for Baird said the premier was on leave until Monday but did not dispute the reports.
A NSW Liberal party source said Baird was wavering and a reversal of the ban seemed likely by the end of the month.
Another said a reversal was expected but Baird had let the issue fester for too long and self-inflicted damage to the government had already been done.
The NSW Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi urged Baird to stand firm and go ahead with the 2017 start to the ban.
“He will lose all credibility,” she told ABC radio. “For true strong leaders you have to make decisions that are right – this was the right one to make.”
Australian Associated Press and Helen Davidson contributed to this report
