V’landys and McGauran to front Friday’s Rosehill hearing
Waller also among industry heavyweights to face Upper House Select Committee
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys will front Friday’s second day of hearings into the state government Upper House inquiry into the proposed sale and development of Rosehill racecourse.
The ten-person Select Committee, which first sat on July 22 when trainers Gai Waterhouse and John O’Shea and Thoroughbred Breeders NSW president Hamish Esplin were among the nine witnesses called, will this week also interrogate affected Rosehill trainers Chris Waller and Richard Freedman in Parliament House’s Macquarie Room.
Australian Turf Club (ATC) chairman Peter McGauran and the club’s head of membership and corporate affairs Steve McMahon will be the first witnesses to be called in front of the committee at 9am to examine the unsolicited proposal to sell off Rosehill and build 25,000 homes and a Metro Station.
McMahon, who is reportedly a close friend of NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns, was the Labor candidate for the federal Sydney seat of Barton which was won by the Liberals at the 2013 election.
ATC vice-chair Tim Hale and club director Caroline Searcy, both of whom are strongly against the proposal to sell Rosehill, will also give evidence from 10am.
During the first hearing, Racing NSW and its long-serving chief executive V’landys came in for stinging criticism for the way the regulator has governed the billion–dollar industry in the state, with almost all witnesses on July 22 questioned about their relationship with or their opinion of the sports administrator.
V’landys and his chief operating officer Graeme Hinton are scheduled to appear during the middle session of the day’s hearings, with the pair expected to front the fiery cross-party committee from 11.45am. Racing NSW board member Garry Charny will already have been questioned, with his appearance scheduled for 10.30am.
NSW Trainers Association chief executive Richard Callander will be the first witness called after the morning tea break, with the Sky Racing and News Ltd media personality to be called in from 11.15am.
Prominent owners and breeders Jason Abrahams and Julia Ritchie, herself a former ATC board member who retired in 2022, will advocate for the retention of the inner western Sydney racetrack under the banner of the Save Rosehill lobby group.
Dr Rosemary Elliot, the president of Sentient, The Veterinary Institute for Animal Ethics and Sydney School of Veterinary Science Associate Professor Dr Andrea Harvey, who made a joint submission, and Dr Paul McGreevy from the University of Sydney Animal Behaviour and Welfare faculty will appear in the 1.5 hour after lunch session.
Sydney’s premier trainer Waller and Freedman, who trains in partnership with his son Will, will be the last witnesses called at the second of three proposed hearing days with the pair to appear together from 3.45pm to 4.30pm.
Former federal Coalition Minister McGauran, who was elected chairman of the ATC in August 2022, was side-by-side with Premier Minns on December 7 when the government and the race club went public with the unsolicited proposal to redevelop Rosehill in a move purportedly worth $5 billion, a figure which has since been strongly contested.
In the ATC’s official submission dated July 22, which was tendered to the Committee on July 18, McGauran set out why the proposal should proceed.
“The ATC, as with surrounding landowners, has sought rezoning of Camellia/Rosehill Gardens coupled with a Metro station since 2015,” McGauran wrote.
“After several years of meetings and discussions with various Government and property stakeholders, it was clear that only increased housing density would make a Metro station a feasible option. Analysis has clearly established that funds generated from a rezoned racecourse with a Metro Station would secure the financial future of the ATC into the next century.
“Conversely, if a Metro station was not located at Rosehill Gardens, then the opportunity to realise the site’s full value would be lost.”
McGauran has stated publicly that the ATC members will have the final say on whether to sell Rosehill.
Waller, along with Waterhouse, have been among the highest-profile dissenters of the proposal from the training fraternity and the expatriate New Zealander will have his time in front of the committee, which is chaired by Shadow Minister for Planning Scott Farlow.
In his written submission, Waller said: “I do not think giving up the Rosehill racecourse for housing is the right way to go when you consider the great loss this would be to the entertainment and life of so many who live in Western Sydney.
“Once Rosehill is gone, Western Sydney has lost one of its greatest community attractions. To suggest it can be replaced or another satisfactory site can be found to build a racetrack is fanciful.
“Although I am totally in favour of the retention of Rosehill, I am open to suggestions of alternative proposals such as the selling off of part of the Rosehill precinct for housing, areas such as not regularly used car parks, and also for Rosehill to be used by the community during non-racing and training hours.”
The third and, at this stage, final hearing into the proposal to redevelop Rosehill is scheduled for September 12.