On Melbourne Cup Day, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens and spokesperson for Animal Welfare, is calling for horse racing to be shut down, and dirty donations from gambling companies linked to horse racing to be banned once and for all.
Recent findings have revealed that over 1,400 horses have died on racetracks in the past decade-an average of one every 2.4 days. Meanwhile, in this same period, donations from gambling companies to the major parties have soared from $66,650 in 2013-2014 to $488,000 in 2022-2023-a staggering 632% increase.
Additionally, there has been a 22.5% decline in the commercial television audience for the Melbourne Cup between 2013 to 2023 with 2,168,000 people viewing the race in 2013 compared to 1,680,000 in 2023-further evidence that more people are saying Nup to the Cup.
As stated by Senator Faruqi:
"More and more people are saying 'Nup to the Cup' every year and fewer and fewer people are watching it. The only reason this carnival of cruelty goes on is because gambling companies make a windfall and they bankroll the two major parties into silence.
"The Melbourne Cup epitomises the farce of the horse racing industry in a single day: a shameful cocktail of animal cruelty, gambling harm, corporate profits and dirty donations.
"In the past decade as hundreds of horses have been killed on race tracks this gambling-fuelled spectacle of cruelty is losing its social license. Gambling companies know this and are protecting their profits by giving more and more blood money to both Labor and the Liberals.
"The two major parties serve their donors. They ignore the pain and harm gambling inflicts on countless people and they certainly do not care that a horse is killed every two and a half days on race tracks.
"It's time to end this grotesque festival of animal cruelty fuelled by gambling and alcohol.
"Let's put the Melbourne Cup in the dustbin of history where it belongs.
"We must shut down horse racing once and for all, ban gambling ads and end dirty donations from gambling companies."
