Scott Morrison wasn’t the only controversial recipient in the King’s Birthday 2025 Honours List.
Queenslander Dale Cartwright was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for “service to greyhound racing.” CPG describes Queensland as the killing state for greyhounds.
Crikey’s Bernard Keane wrote that “The honours system already lacks credibility.”
He added that, “One ‘Dale Cartwright’ received an OAM for ‘service to greyhound racing’, presumably to offset the awarding of an OAM to Jennifer Hunt for animal welfare.”
Mr Cartwright’s two decades in greyhound racing included almost ten years on the Racing Queensland board, finishing in April 2025. He was greyhound director at RQ.
The words “animal welfare” are not mentioned in any of the descriptions of Mr Cartwright’s accomplishments. He was a director at Greyhounds Australasia, where internal documents showed that up to 17,000 greyhounds were being killed each year.
The 2016/17 annual report for RQ describes him as a “former President of the Brisbane Greyhound Racing Club; where he convened the Queensland Greyhound Affiliation which dealt with industry and animal welfare issues in a very fraught public environment.”
Between 2020-June 2025 Brisbane’s Albion Park track was one of Australia’s deadliest. 35 greyhounds died on the track, and 2,816 suffered injuries. 503 of these were major injuries and many of these dogs would have been killed.
Racing media reported among his accomplishments the “delivery and progress of a wide range of infrastructure projects, headlined by The Q”.
The Q is a disaster that has killed at least 11 greyhounds between March-June 2025. The cost of the three-track complex blew out from $39m to $86m. $44m came from the public.
The cancellation of the Brisbane Cup, Queensland’s biggest greyhound race, on 7 July 2025 symbolised all that is wrong with The Q. It generated a media storm highlighting the dangers of the new centre.
The following media headlines are taken from Courier Mail, Brisbane Times, ABC, Ipswich Local News, Ipswich Tribune, Racenet, Focus Gaming News, Greyhound Recorder:
Racing suspended at new Queensland greyhound track after deaths
Greyhound racing suspended at Queensland’s new $85 million track due to unsafe conditions
Racing at new $85 million Queensland greyhound facility suspended again due to ‘unsuitable’ track
Racing suspended at Queensland greyhound facility as track deemed unsafe again
Qld’s new greyhound track ‘world-class stuff up’
RQ Count The Cost Of Brisbane Cup Blunder
Shock closure for $85M Dog of a track
Racing Queensland responds to criticism of ‘deadliest’ greyhound track
Racing suspended, track deemed “unsuitable”
Greyhounds washout probed
Queensland racing counts the cost of Brisbane Cup debacle
Links:
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/06/10/scott-morrison-order-of-australian-ban-politicians-honours/
https://www.racingqueensland.com.au/news/2025/06-june/dale-cartwright-receives-oam