This year’s Bush Summit was held in Dubbo and allowed advocates to educate attendees about the cruelty and corruption in NSW greyhound racing.
Greyhound NSW was a sponsor of the event, and had launched a PR/lobbying campaign prior to the event, based on misleading and incorrect information.
Greyhound advocates contacted attendees and advised them of the truth of dog racing, eg:
– According to the Federal Parliamentary Library, since 2017 there have been 589 greyhound racing deaths and 23,240 injuries on NSW tracks.
– The latest racing death was Tiggerlong Socks, killed at the Wagga track on 18 August after suffering compound fractures to both forelegs when falling at 60kmh.
– In 2017 the NSW Government committed $30m to greyhound track infrastructure. Recipients of the Capital Grants Program included Dubbo, Temora, Lithgow, Muswellbrook, Coonamble, and Broken Hill.
– Despite this, the NSW Government’s 2025 Drake Inquiry into greyhound racing found that no NSW track met minimum safety standards.
– In June, GRNSW revealed that the waiting list for rehoming was 4,100 dogs.
In NZ, right-wing nationalist MP Winston Peters, leader of NZ First, banned greyhound racing due to the high injury rate. NZ’s total injury rate was 22.5 injuries per 1,000 starts; in NSW it is 37.9 per 1,000, the highest rate in Australia.
– There is no independent research on the economic contribution of greyhound racing. The racing industry pays consultants IER Pty Ltd. for economic reports, but economist Saul Eslake has described their findings as “egregiously exaggerated”.
– The President of NSW Greyhound Racing Clubs, and President of Dubbo Greyhound Racing Club, is currently disqualified for assaulting a greyhound. Other charges are under investigation. In FY25, there were a total of 203 proven charges against 102 GRNSW participants.
The locals at Dubbo didn’t appear too impressed with the event. A Crikey article quotes one local as saying that the influx of visitors, with their “brand-new Akubra”, “can fuck off”.
The late release of the schedule was described as a “shit show”, while the small focus on health, education and services was called a “disgrace”.
Regional communities probably aren’t aware that NSW governments have prioritised $40m of taxpayer funding ($30m capital grants, $10m for Wentworth Park track) for industry infrastructure over health services.
The Summit concluded with a “special Greyhound Racing NSW event at the Dubbo Greyhound Racing Club”, where there were the usual racing injuries, equipment malfunction, and Ladbrokes signage. The next day, a greyhound would die on the Wagga track.
A shit show, indeed.