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MEDIA RELEASE: ARB
HORSE FLU: GOVERNMENT AGREES TO ABSORB $108M COST
The Australian Racing Board has hailed the Rudd Government’s decision not to impose a levy on the industry to recover the $108M spent on eradicating Equine Influenza (EI).
Australian Racing Board Chairman, Bob Pearson, confirmed that the ARB has been engaged in representations to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Tony Burke, since February on this issue.
“The Australian Racing Board felt that it was imperative that the industry’s viewpoint was heard and the Minister, Tony Burke, was scrupulously fair in giving us that opportunity.”
- Andrew Harding Chief Executive, Australian Racing Board
“The Government’s decision is the right one but nobody should underestimate the difficulty of getting an agreement to writing off $108M, especially given the current economic circumstances.”
“We know that the current razor gang climate in Canberra would not have made it easy for him so Tony Burke deserves enormous credit for having given us a fair hearing, for having examined the facts objectively, and for then going into bat for what was right.”
“Our argument was that the issue should be boiled down to a question of what was fair. Fairness demanded that we shouldn’t be made to pay for somebody else’s failures.”
- Andrew Harding
It may be noted that today’s decision brings to approximately $350M the total amount spent by the Federal Government on eradication costs plus financial assistance packages for the horse industry’s participants associated with the EI outbreak.
The Australian Board led the industry’s involvement in the Callinan Inquiry established to investigate the circumstances of EI escaping from Eastern Creek Quarantine station.
“The report that has been made to the government by The Hon. Ian Callinan AC will particularise the specific failings, but it is already abundantly clear from the evidence given to his inquiry that the August 2007 EI outbreak had as its cause a fundamental dereliction of AQIS’ responsibility to keep this disease out of the country. We look forward to the release of the Callinan Report in due course and remedial action been taken to ensure as far as possible that nothing like this can ever happen again.” – Andrew Harding
For further inquires:
Andrew Harding,
Chief Executive,
Australian Racing Board 0417 043 233.
QUEENSLAND Racing web news: Australian Racing Board Media Release – June 11
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