Calculating the number of "participants" as Racing NSW so quaintly calls those who work in the New South Wales racing industry is an inexact science at best. When Peter V'Landys first became CEO of Racing NSW in 2004 he was fond of talking about 63,000 participants who were all going to be better off because of his strategic plan. More recently when launching the 2010 edition of that document, the number had shrunk to 50,000. Presumably 13,000 of them have gone to a better place.
In 2008 the Boston Consulting Group reported to the New South Wales government that the industry employed just over 16,000 people. Whichever way you look at it the number is going down, but strangely, when Racing NSW sends out a "participants bulletin" as it did last Friday, there were a whole lot of people what had never heard from Racing NSW before who suddenly found themselves on the email list. The Racing NSW propaganda machine knows no limits. Participants were puzzled and then amused by the way that various self congratulatory articles and videos would be advanced to most current on the front page of the Racing NSW web site even though they first appeared a month ago.
Then a number of bemused Victorians suddenly found themselves being told by email about Racing NSW's "victories" in Court last week, when of course there was nothing of the sort. Suggesting that Justice Perram's perfectly proper action in excusing himself from pronouncing on his own judgement was a victory for Racing NSW borders on contempt of court to me, but is symbolic of a continuing course of conduct which is intensely disrespectful to the second highest Court in the land. Contrast Racing NSW's demeanour with that of Racing Victoria when it lost a Supreme Court challenge brought against it by TabCorp in Victoria when it challenged the gross profit form of race fields payment calculation (for the record the Court ruled that both the gross profit and turnover method of calculation were invalid because neither could be precisely calculated under the legislation). No bleating from Racing Victoria about the verdict. They quietly went about reorganising the payment structure and used industry resources to promptly repay the amounts wrongly charged. 
Racing NSW has all but accused Perram of incompetence. It is bickering about paying back any of the money illegally collected from Sportsbet and you can completely forget about refunding anyone else's money on the basis that if it was illegal to charge Sportsbet while not collecting from TabCorp then so it was illegal for everyone else. When the Productivity Commission produced its final report suggesting that gross profits was the way to go on race fields fees, another Racing NSW outburst emerged, criticising some of the best economic minds in the country. While these intemperate abuses of independent bodies charged with looking after the rights of all Australians continue, the "participants" should be reminded that Racing NSW is not some private corporation, running racing in NSW for personal benefit. It is incorporated as a statutory body, part of the State of New South Wales, which derives its own authority and capacity to act on the part of all its citizens by the Federal Constitution. It is deeply disturbing to see an arm of the New South Wales government acting with such scant regard to the legal framework under which it operates. Also disturbing is to see the Racing NSW Board apparently being used as a puppet by one man, Peter V'Landys, who I believe seems incapable of understanding the principles of good corporate governance. While internally V'Landys may tolerate no opposition, when he starts taking on the likes of the Federal Court and the Productivity Commission, he is punching well above his weight. Looking from afar, it has been a source of some wonderment to me that the racing industry in New South Wales continues to put up with such appalling leadership. But maybe things are beginning to change. Rumours abound that the "participants" have had enough and are about to embark on a very public campaign of no confidence in Racing NSW. It can't come too soon, if the terminal decline of racing in New South Wales is to be averted.
Courtesy of BILL SAUNDERS of TVF, 13/07/2010
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THE PARTICIPANTS ARE REVOLTING