Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I always suspected it was the case, but now it’s been confirmed – for almost three years, the Warrnambool City Council did virtually nothing about racehorse trainers breaking the rules at Lady Bay.

Early last year I lodged a Freedom of Information application for all of the correspondence between the council and Warrnambool Racing Club about breaches and alleged breaches of the training rules at Lady Bay.

I asked for everything from 1 December 2016 – which is when the new rules began – right through to 14 March 2019: all letters, emails, the whole lot.

The application took nine months, with the council making me jump through multiple, mind-screwing hoops to narrow down such things as what I meant by “members” of the WRC, what email addresses they should search for, what names they should search for, what keywords they should search for….

On and on it went, at an eventual cost of $216.75 (funded, thankfully, by a grant from the Walkley Foundation Public Fund which supports investigative journalism).

And at the end of all that searching and all that money, the result was just two letters:

Two, brief letters from the WCC to the WRC in 27 months: one written in March last year and one from November 2018.

This was the total sum of all written correspondence between those in charge, despite the steady stream of complaints (and videos and photographs) from the public during this time showing near misses, a racehorse that had thrown its rider, trainers riding fast past walkers, and numerous other safety issues. (See footage below from 2017.)

Apparently none of this warranted even a single email from the WCC to the WRC.

Perhaps they rang or texted each other, leaving no paper trail, I don’t know.

What I do know, however, is that when it comes to cracking down on errant trainers, the council has been extraordinarily weak. 

Let’s be super clear here: asking for the rules to be enforced does not mean we are instantly “anti-horse racing” or that all trainers are running amok. #notalltrainers

Instead, it’s a reminder that a public beach is just that – public –  and members of the public have every right to be asking the council what happens when things go wrong, especially when it comes to racehorses on Warrnambool’s main swimming beach.

Until last November, not one trainer had been suspended or fined.

The council says it has since cancelled the permit of one trainer for breaches, although we don’t know who, or for how long, or why, or whether – to be frank – if this actually happened, as some within the industry are unaware of it.

Professional racehorse training at Lady Bay is now the new normal and despite claims that it has “always” been this way, it hasn’t.

A second FOI, which I will write more about soon, revealed there were regularly more than 1000 horse workouts a month at Lady Bay until disgraced trainer Darren Weir fell off his perch.

This is not how it used to be, but this is what our council happily signed up for: up to 96 horses running each morning until 10am, seven days a week, from the first day of Autumn to the first day of Summer, including public holidays.

And they did this with a promise that officers would keep an eye on things – the FOI results show that they didn’t.

In fact Mayor Tony Herbert has recently taken things one step further and suggested that people who are worried by the racehorses at Lady Bay should go to another beach.

Good grief.

This is an excerpt of what Cr Herbert recently wrote in an email to one resident:

“I have spoken to many people over the past few years and some of them avoid the said beach when training of horses is occurring.  Some find that unacceptable, others find that ok.  WCC approach is trying to achieve a balanced approach.

We are so lucky in our city and region that we have a number of alternatives, if sharing the beach with horses is unacceptable to you in the mornings. During the winter months if I’m walking my dog, I choose to use other beaches and there is a number of them.”

In other words, if push comes to shove with “sharing” our main beach, it is the general public that gets shoved.

More on the results of these FOIs soon.

The FOI would not have been possible without a grant from the Walkley Foundation Public Fund which supports investigative journalism.

https://youtu.be/YrlBObep0jE

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

The Terrier has won a major grant to help turn up the volume on indigenous stories from our region, and to help this site survive and thrive.

The grant is one of only nine funded in the first round by Sydney billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson’s Institute for Journalism and Ideas and it will allow me to hire and mentor a cadet Indigenous journalist.

As if there wasn’t enough adrenalin pumping through the veins of The Terrier this week, this news has just come through today and, I tell you, I had to have a small lie down when I saw the other recipients:

the ABC, The Australian, The Guardian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Schwartz Media (The Monthly/The Saturday Paper), Ngaarda Media and… drumroll….The Terrier, in Warrnambool.

So what does this mean for The Terrier?

Well, it means I can fulfil my hope of being able to better tell the Indigenous stories of our region, including those of the colonial invasion and those that are unfolding as we speak, such as Budj Bim, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Area, and the mind-blowing research around Moyjil.

I want these stories to be told by an Indigenous voice, not only my voice, and in so doing I want to empower the next generation of journalists.

The south-west can do so much more to celebrate, respect and listen to the Indigenous voices in our region, and with the support of the Institute, I can help that to happen.

The second part of the 12-month grant will allow The Terrier to explore different funding models, which basically means finding ways to encourage readers to be as loyal as a Cairn, a Maltese or a foxy, by contributing what they can, when they can.

Through the $100 million Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, Ms Neilson* – who owns the White Rabbit gallery in Sydney – is breathing life back into the lungs of a struggling media landscape.

And she is making sure that this air is pumped not only into the big cities, but into regional towns, where journalism is at a crisis point.

We all know that before The Terrier, investigative journalism in Warrnambool had become almost non-existent and yet, as the Warrnambool City Council credit card scandal has shown, it is absolutely critical.

The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas gets this.

As its director Mark Ryan says, “the Institute believes that the best way to champion quality journalism is to help journalists do more of it“.

You got it Mark!

If The Terrier can develop a group of loyal supporters who, between them, help cover the costs of sniffing, digging and writing, then The Terrier will not only survive, but thrive.

We have made it this far, on the back of a Tip Jar, but there is still much more to do.

After the huge events of this week, and the outpouring of support that has followed, I reckon we can do it.

On we go.

*I did, by chance, see Ms Neilson in the distance while filming the above video at her Sydney headquarters. I showed restraint…okay, I admit it, I had to be restrained. I hope I do get to thank her personally one day, as what she is doing for journalism via her philanthropy is game-changing.

You can see the full list of grant winners and the fabulous projects here.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

The Warrnambool City Council offices were buzzing yesterday as dozens of staff were seen piling into the Lighthouse Theatre studio for what some passers-by thought might be a mass union meeting.

But no, it was not a union meeting, but a meet-and-greet with new CEO Peter Schneider who still remains a bit of mystery man since starting the new job in February.

According to a somewhat embarrassing movie-style internal flyer that was, I guess, a bit of fun from the council’s public relations team, the sessions were a chance to MEET the CHIEF.

“He’s a man with a plan and he wants to meet you.”

Heavens.

This blockbuster event was a chance for staff to be introduced to Mr Schneider and “talk about culture, values and the way forward”.

The flyer “reviews” said it was a presentation not to be missed and a real “game-changer”.

This all sounds positive, even if the flyer scares me with its machismo, slightly Trump-esque tone.

Hopefully there are plans for a a public screening of this “blockbuster” so we can all hear about Mr Schneider’s culture, values and the way forward too.

An update on last night’s Facebook post about $985,000 being spent at Aquazone this year to improve water treatment and air quality at the pool.

I wondered out loud where the money was coming from, given the 2018-19 budget set aside $540,000 for the water treatment works and next year’s budget makes no mention of any Aquazone works at all.

The answer came today from council spokesman Nick Higgins who said the rest of the money dates back to the 2017-18 budget, when $420,000 was set aside to fix the roof, but was never spent.

Further investigations, he said, revealed the roof was being ruined by an old air handling system, so it was decided to fix the roof AND the air circulation problem in one.

So this is why, as we speak, the whole she-bang adds up to close to $1 million.

Pools are expensive to maintain and it seems heated, indoor pools are even more expensive: in 2015, the council spent $178,000 re-tiling the changerooms at Aquazone and the pool is not yet 20 years old.

Hold your breath, because I sense the $985,000 this year is just the beginning.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

I have written a lot about racehorses this week, and for good reason, but there is one big question which still hasn’t been fully explored by the community: do we want to see Lady Bay become a permanent racehorse training facility?

Somehow this important question has been lost, despite the racing industry slowly and steadily claiming a bigger and bigger footprint on what is our main public beach.

That footprint is about to become permanent*.

Plans are afoot to build a $520,000 extension to the Pavilion carpark that will see an extra 33 carparks, plus another nine, double-length carparks for horse floats and long vehicles, plus a $100,000 wash-down facility for racehorses, all on what is Crown Land.

The Warrnambool City Council plans to spend $220,000 on this carpark/washdown set up and the Warrnambool Racing Club will contribute $400,000: more than half a million dollars in total.

Make no mistake, no club agrees to spend $400,000 without some sense of long-term security.

This means even more bitumen and concrete at Lady Bay over what is now sand and vegetation.

And it comes at a time when our animal species are dying out at an unprecedented rate which, even if you are not a soy-latte-sipping-snowflake-leftie-rabid-vegan-terrorist-activist-greenie (or whatever else is the insult these days), has to be of concern.

The carpark is being funded as a priority under the Warrnambool Harbour Masterplan and will be used exclusively by the racing club in the mornings.

“The car park would be available for horse-on-beach activities during morning periods and would be the area designated for that use,” says council spokesman Nick Higgins.

“It is this aspect that has triggered their (WRC’s financial) contribution.”

As to how long this agreement is for and what else will be funded in the future, that is all still under negotiation as part of the bigger plan to have racehorses training at Lady Bay and Levy’s Beach.

Which comes back around to the question: do we want our public beaches to become a permanent racehorse training facility?

We need to have this debate, because once the carpark is there, it isn’t moving.

It is a question which troubles a lot of people.

This includes the people who want to support local trainers, or love racehorses, or love watching horses swimming at Lady Bay – or maybe all three – but don’t want to see Lady Bay, or Levy’s Beach, turned into an extension of the racecourse.

These people just want to be able to walk on the beach, at any time of day, without worrying.

And they do worry, because when you mix large numbers of highly-spirited racehorses with the public, dangerous things happen.

Like last Thursday, the day of the Grand Annual Steeplechase, when a skittish racehorse being led into the water broke away from its handler and bolted down the beach.

A member of the public walking his dog had the foresight to raise his arms high and managed to stop the horse from belting further toward the surf club.

A couple of weeks ago, a similar thing happened: a racehorse cut loose and took off across the carpark toward the breakwater.

No wonder those who walk along the beach in the morning, do so with eyes in the back of their heads.

As one woman who walks most mornings said to me today, she is astonished the horses are allowed to run the length of the beach, all the way to the surf club.

“On the days when there are no racehorses at Lady Bay, it is just so peaceful and I was amazed at how different it felt, psychologically, to not have to worry.”

This woman is among those who have felt genuinely nervous as a clutch of racehorses have galloped past – “like they are in a race”.

And yet this woman, like so many other beach users I have spoken to about this issue, feels torn.

She can see the beauty in horses swimming. She finds most of the riders friendly and has no problem with people enjoying horse racing as a sport, but racehorses taking over a public beach? That is a bridge too far.

“If I had a choice, though, I would rather see them stay at Lady Bay than go to Levy’s Point, because the environment out there is even more important,” she says.

So this is the terrible choice that we have been given: do you wish to sacrifice this beach or that beach?

I can’t disclose this woman’s name, but I can assure you – if it helps to underscore the point – that she is not a soy-latte-sipping-snowflake-leftie-rabid-vegan-terrorist-activist-greenie.

She is just an everyday Warrnamboolian, worried about what is happening to our beaches at a time when we need, more than ever, to be protecting our natural spaces.

She is not alone.

* If there was any doubt about the deal being done here, you can refer back to a report in the minutes of the 1 Oct 2018 council meeting on p330: “The process has also given Council the opportunity to negotiate a reduction in horse numbers on Lady Bay and to require the Warrnambool Racing Club (WRC) to make a funding contribution towards the construction of a new bespoke car park for horse training adjoining the existing car park at the Pavilion.”

If you would like to see The Terrier keep digging up, sniffing out and chewing on local issues, please consider throwing something in the tip jar.

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Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Here’s a twist on the $75,000 given to Sharp Airlines by the cash-strapped Warrnambool City Council  – Sharp Airlines didn’t ask for the money.

No, it was offered to Sharp as part of a $300,000 package to try and keep the passenger service to Essendon flying beyond last January when it was due to close because of insufficient numbers.

So this money wasn’t a “bail out” for Sharp Airlines, but an unexpected bonus.

The package was put together by the State Government, which in turn asked for contributions from Warrnambool, Glenelg and Moyne councils – only Warrnambool and Glenelg said yes.

Warrnambool ratepayers didn’t know a thing about any of this until the local newspaper broke the story in early January, right smack bang in the middle of the council announcing it wanted to break the rate cap and lift rates by 4.5% because it was slowly going broke. No wonder they wanted to keep it quiet.

The WCC wouldn’t say at the time how much it had given Sharp, but ironically the $75,000 figure was revealed privately to a focus group of ratepayers who were invited by the council to discuss the need for a rate rise.

As one of those ratepayers told me later, they were shocked to learn that the council could have said no.

Sharp Airlines, as a business, doesn’t need rescuing.  It operates other routes from other airports quite successfully, but the Warrnambool to Melbourne passenger route was not proving  profitable since its relaunch in 2015.

Like any business, the airline made a decision that after four years of making a loss, it was time to pull the pin, but if the State Government was offering a package to help turn things around, Sharp would happily try.

Sharp Airlines CEO Malcolm Sharp is refreshingly up front about all of this.

“We have never asked for and have never before received any government assistance, but we certainly appreciate the support,” he says.

Mr Sharp says passenger numbers have improved slightly since January, but a final decision will be made in the next six to eight weeks. The key is whether more business passengers get on board.

What the Sharp Airlines deal has done, however, is expose a much bigger problem with the airport which, unbelievably, runs at a loss that is picked up by – you guessed it – Warrnambool ratepayers.

So we have an airline receiving council money that it didn’t ask for, while that same council runs the airport at a loss. No wonder the budget is stuffed.

This loss is despite a $4.3 million upgrade of the airport just three years ago that included $750,000 of WCC money and was supposed to see the airport zoom into the future with more hangars being built, more flights, more businesses setting up….

Three years on, WCC ratepayers are still having to meet the average shortfall in income of around $200,000 a year.

Does this sound familiar to you? If you have been following the Flagstaff Hill $3 million sound-and-light-show debacle, it should.

A big upgrade, all bells and whistles, media photos, high-vis vests and handshakes….and then ratepayers keep footing the bill.

Despite running at a loss, the WCC still has virtually no user-pays fees for the airport.

While we are being whacked for parking, pet registrations and green waste, Midfield Meats International, for example, pays about $50 a week or $2600 a year to rent space for an airport hangar (the hangars themselves are privately built and owned).

There are also no aeroplane parking fees or landing fees, despite around 15,000 takeoffs and landings at the airport each year.

If the WCC charged, say, $50 a pop per landing and takeoff, there is a neat $750,000 a year … which just happens to be how much it hopes to raise through breaking the rate cap.

Head. Wall. Bang.

As it is, WCC is one of only two of the 79 councils right across Victoria to apply for permission to bust the rate cap. We can only hope the Essential Services Commission sees right through this and says no.

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