Racing boss meets Hanson and Joyce in fight for Tasmanian racing

The President of the Australian Trainers’ Association, Troy Corstens, recently met with One Nation, including its leader Pauline Hanson, as part of racing’s push to fight off interference in Tasmania.

Corstens was at pains to say the October meeting for the ATA ‘was not political’, with the organisatoin purely supporting Greyhound Racing Australia in its bid to save the sport in Tasmania.

He said the meeting included Hanson and her daughter Lee [who is a One Nation candidate in Tasmania], plus MP and deputy leader Barnaby Joyce.

‘’It’s probably not too political at our end. It was more a show of support with Greyhound Racing Australia,’’ Corstens told Betsy.

‘’So Simon Stout is a very good fella who is the CEO of GRA and he organised the meeting down in Tasmania.

‘’Obviously, they’ve got an agenda to push at the moment because the Liberal government and the Greens down there are trying or they’re very, very keen to shut down greyhound racing in Tasmania.

‘’And basically, he went and organised the meeting with Pauline and Barnaby to try and bolster some support for all three codes down in Tasmania.’’

Corstens said the meeting was a combination of One Nation’s leadership understanding the battles racing faces – plus the codes pushing their agenda with the political party that could have a significant increase in power with a number of upcoming state and federal elections.

‘’It was a very informal meeting. It wasn’t hugely political or anything like that. Barnaby was giving us a fair bit of encouragement to all stick together as far as the racing codes go,’’ he said.

‘’Which sat very well with me because I think it’s a really poignant issue down in Tasmania that if the Libs and the Greens get their way, greyhound racing is abolished down there.

‘’I’d say that harness racing and thoroughbred racing are really going to have to look hard within as well because it’s only a matter of time before the greens start coming after all of us.

‘’And down in Tasmania, greyhound racing is an extremely important part of the racing economy down there.

‘’But the meeting was a very general catch-up. It was an extremely general meeting. Pauline introduced us to Lee, her daughter, as well. She’s very intelligent, and she’s doing a lot of work down there.”

Corstens also used the Tasmanian racing industry as an example of how important racing is to the economy.

He said the ATA wouldn’t hesitate to help the Tasmanian industry whenever they needed it.

‘’It was more of us just making them aware of how big racing actually is, how many jobs we have right throughout the country, and how many of them are majorly in the regional areas,’’ Corstens said.

‘’So just how big the racing economy is, and I think they were very impressed with that.

‘’I actually mentioned that racing in Victoria is in a really good spot at the moment and very good, but that doesn’t mean that somewhere like Tasmania doesn’t need our focus and our help.

‘’I am the ATA Federal President, and I’m very well aware that if they need our help, I’ll down there in a heartbeat to try and do that.’’

Corstens also met with a number of Labor ministers as part of his visit.