From Jeremy Rockliff, Minister for Racing, Tasmania
The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to restoring the racing industry’s sustainability and vibrancy and the jobs it supports in regional Tasmania.
The difficult decisions we made in 2015 to implement sustainability measures are working, and have allowed Tasracing to operate on a sustainable financial basis for the first time since it was established in 2009. Tasracing is now in a position to re-invest those dividends and further grow the industry without any additional taxpayer funding, which includes new investment in racing infrastructure projects.
When Tasracing releases its annual report in coming weeks it will show a profit of $0.371 million for 2016/17 on the back of a modest profit of $0.18 million in 2015/16, compared to a $1.2 million loss the previous year and losses of $16 million between 2009 and 2014/15.
Importantly, these sustainability measures have allowed Tasracing to increase the base funding for all three racing codes in Tasmania by 6 percent for 2017-18 to more than $22 million.
After taking account of funding carryovers last year from the 2014-15 season ($394,000) this equates to an increase of 4 per cent year-on-year, as outlined in Tasracing’s Corporate Plan.
This means that thoroughbred base stakes will increase 6 per cent or $685,380 compared to the previous year, harness base stakes will increase 6 per cent or $328,394 and greyhound base stakes by 6 per cent or $234,429 compared to last financial year.
A number of other increases and incentives have also been allocated across the codes which are all designed to boost grass roots racing and the broader industry.
I would like to acknowledge the hard work of Tasracing and the co
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