Te Akau Monday Update

David writes:

Each morning, when I go out on the farm, I always enjoy listening to Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB. 

He always interviews very relevant guests and he also asks in depth, probing questions - whether you enjoy his style or not, Mike Hosking is a true genius of his trade. 

On the evening farm drives, I tend to listen to Heather Du Plessis-Allan and I generally think she is a brilliant journalist and I love her interviews. 

However, one comment that she made last week really made me see red. 

She was congratulating the Government for all the spending they had done in supporting businesses during the COVID-19 restrictions, but she then criticised the Government for spending $72 million on the racing industry.

This is where I believe we need to explain ourselves better. That also starts at the top - our leadership must communicate the facts in a clear, concise manner that cuts through and penetrates - so that people understand how important and crucial this investment is.

If I only had a sheep and cattle farm, I would employ only three or four people full-time but because we are involved in the racing industry, we employ 100 people full time, of which around 70 are based in New Zealand. 

With the Government alert system closing the racing industry down during the COVID-19 lockdown period, it made it literally impossible for the TAB to conduct sports betting and betting on the three racing codes in New Zealand. Therefore if the Government hadn't gotten involved, the TAB (which is the major funder of the codes) would have struggled financially to get racing started again. Imagine that impact on the tens of thousands of people this industry employs, both directly and indirectly!

So, my question to Heather is this - do you want to have your taxes increase substantially and pay more to keep over 15,000 people on the unemployment benefit? As that is what would have happened if the industry had not been assisted. 

I would estimate that in the last 30 years our industry would have paid about one billion dollars (approximately) just in duty tax, not forgetting the huge amounts we collect weekly for the Government in PAYE or the millions we pay in GST, ACC etc. 

In short, the racing and breeding industries have been incredibly beneficial to the various governments, so when they close racing down (unlike in Australia where racing has continued) why should our industry not receive some support back in return?  

To my way of thinking, it was a very strategically smart decision for Treasury, and I think that the racing industry is lucky that we have a Deputy Prime Minister (who is also our Minister for Racing) who actually understands the contribution that the industry makes to the economy. 

After all, the tourism industry has received hundreds and hundreds of millions of the dollars - and quite rightly so - so why should the racing industry be restricted? 

Heather, could you please explain that to us? 

Speaking of Australia, I am consistently asked why racing is so successful in terms of prize money in Australia compared to New Zealand. 

In my opinion, one of the reasons is approximately 10 years ago, Australia had an outbreak of Equine Influenza and racing was forced to close completely for three or four months. 

The State Governments were so alarmed by the economic impact of this and faced the stark realisation, arguably for the first time, of the significant contribution that racing made to the general economy. 

From owners flying from Melbourne to Sydney to see their horses race, to trainers flying interstate to check on their horses - needing accommodation, hiring rental cars, taxis, going out for dinner. Then there are the farriers, vets, physios, equine dentists etc plus stable staff travelling to care for these horses - there are so many connections to so many related industries and businesses that lost so much money during that time. The Australian politicians made a commitment to look after racing better than they did before. They have obviously delivered on that promise.

They substantially reduced the turnover tax that they charged racing and they also contributed more to the industry - for example, the new grandstand at Randwick cost $185m, the State Government was the biggest funder of that new development. Why? Because it realised the contribution that racing makes to its economy.

Our industry must have Government support as a lack of investment creates a ‘domino effect' on many businesses involved, and that is the last thing our economy needs right now.

New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) has started a very good campaign that highlights this - with the hashtag #onehorsemanyhearts - you can find stories around this topic on its website loveracing.nz.

The amazing montage it has used (main pic) is made cup of photos of just some of the people involved in our industry. Over coming weeks, NZTR will be profiling a number of these passionate people.

We need to remind the public that when you see a horse at the races, think about the number of people it took to get the horse to that stage. Every racehorse has a massive team of people behind it that is employed to look after its well-being - each one has such an important part of play in our industry.

In farm news ...

Late last week and over the weekend, we had another 20mls of rain fall and it is quite incredible the grass that we are still growing.

Late last week, we completed the scanning of our breeding ewes. The 5YO ewes scanned at 169%, the mixed age ewes scanned at 167% and the two-tooth ewes scanned at 145%. We finished up with only 76 'dry' ewes.

We are only a matter of days away from the shortest day of the year and there are only seven weeks until August 1, when we begin our new racing season. We are really looking forward to the start of the new season as we have a very exciting team of horses to race.

Until then, we have a number of horses trialling at Te Rapa tomorrow and it is only a two weeks now until racing resumes in New Zealand. We are currently on 99 New Zealand wins for the 2019-20 season - let us see if we can increase that figure before our new season begins!  I would love to see Jamie and our team hit the New Zealand century!

Again, I would also like to thank everyone who has been in touch, either by phone, text, email, or post congratulating me on the CNZM bestowed in the Queen's Birthday Honours. I am looking forward to having a special dinner on Saturday with our children and their partners and my two siblings to celebrate.

To everyone who has been in contact, I would like to say a massive thank you to you all. It has been truly overwhelming and we really appreciate everyone's kind words.

Have a great week - and let us all prepare to say ...

GO THE TANGERINE

... again in a couple of weeks' time!!

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