“We think Mr Peters has been the best Racing Minister this country has had, but we believe on this matter he was poorly advised,” says Rennell.
GRNZ’s application to the court says the Cabinet paper produced by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) focused on animal welfare but was selective in its use of reports from the Racing Integrity Board (RIB) and included no information from the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC).
For example, an RIB November 2024 report stated that GRNZ met welfare standards, often better than other animal sports or greyhound racing worldwide, but this information was left out of the DIA report and Cabinet paper, GRNZ says.
GRNZ’s application says there was a duty, promise and expectation to consult with GRNZ on the decision and that never happened, despite a history of constructive engagement on animal welfare.
While GRNZ faces a shutdown by August 2026, Rennell says the application for the judicial review is not about buying greyhound racing time or slowing down the closure down of the code.
“If the review is granted, we would like the matter handled as quickly as possible and I am sure the Crown would too.”
The application for the judicial review will not have come as a surprise to Peters’ office, as he spoke about its likelihood in March.
“I have just heard they [GRNZ] are going to take me on, possibly in court. Well, let’s see,” Peters said at the time.
His office was waiting to see the full text of the application lodged by GRNZ counsel Chris Finlayson on Monday before commenting, with Peters in Sri Lanka.
The Minister for Racing’s office said: “Crown Law is awaiting to receive the Statement of Claim. As the matter is before the court, there will be no further comment.”
Greyhound Protection League spokesman Aaron Cross also responded to the legal challenge.
“The legal advice we have is that it’s likely a futile waste of time and money, even if it does delay the inevitable,” he said. “GRNZ continues to operate in self-interest and not in the interests of ending these regular and horrific injuries to greyhounds.”
Cross said it was disingenuous to suggest the decision had come as a shock.
“The first critical reviews into the industry began in 2013, by WHK auditors, paid for by GRNZ themselves. The industry has done itself no favours by dragging its feet in response to these reviews and even decided independently that they’d done enough and would discontinue reporting to the Government on its progress at one point. That did not meet official expectations at all.”
Cross said Greyhound Racing New Zealand had consistently refused to acknowledge public concern.
“There is a strong culture of denial in greyhound racing with regard to welfare outcomes and all this wasteful nonsense will achieve is to prove, yet again, they are unable to read the room and are out of touch with public sentiment.
“I imagine minister Peters will be irritated by this somewhat, not so much by the seeking of the judicial review but by the complete disregard for the realities of this issue and the time taken to address this when he has far more pressing and important matters to consider.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat amused, however.”
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald‘s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
