With the announcement that regional Victoria will move to the roadmap’s Third Step from tonight, Labor’s Racing Minister Martin Pakula still has no plan back for our country racing clubs.
It’s disappointing the Andrews Labor Government has announced community sport can be played and that up to 50 can attend an outdoor dining facility but still has no plan to get racing people back to the track.
From this weekend, while people will grace bowling greens, tennis courts and golf courses one of our state’s biggest sectors has been left hanging by a thread.
We are heading into the prime racing season and country race clubs have some of their most profitable days coming up on the calendar.
Horse owners are one of the backbones of our great industry and as a first step we should be looking at getting limited numbers of owners back on course, and club members as well.
A stepped and staged approach is sensible, but the silence from the Minister is sending the wrong signal at a time when we need to be leading our industry’s recovery.
