Michael Mora

Yes, yes, yes, Heather Simpson.

And so essentially the role of the Greyhound Transition Agency is to care for these greyhounds who are no longer going to be racing until they are all rehomed.

So they're going to be partnering up with the likes of the SPCA and other organisations to, you know, try and get these dogs new homes.

And probably a big marketing campaign to...

get these dogs rehomed.

So if you're taking away cash and blowing it on a plane to take them to another jurisdiction to continue racing, then obviously that money's not going to be available later.

No, so come August 1, Greyhound Racing New Zealand is completely taken over by the transition agency.

Well, there will be in the sense that the Transition Agency will take control of some of the staff of GRNZ, but in terms of the finances of Greyhound Racing New Zealand, that will be taken over by the Transition Agency.

Things like infrastructure, track infrastructure...

officers, personnel that'll be taken over by the Transition Agency.

And I guess this is in part why there is some concern about forking out big coin for a charter plane to take dogs to Australia, because that cash is intended to be used to help care for animals after August 1.

But meanwhile, GRNZ is proposing to pay a lump sum to get this charter flight over to Queensland and

and pay for all these dogs to be transported there.

Look, I think it does go against the spirit of the legislation.

You know, this was expressly brought in to protect dogs, to ensure that they were looked after, to ensure that they were not injured during racing.

And what has happened is...

this plane.

I mean, look, Edward Ronell says that this plane, it's still being worked out and the feasibility of it's still being worked out.

But yeah, I mean, I do think it goes against the spirit of the legislation purely because the whole plan behind banning greyhound racing was to protect the animals.

And if you've got 70-odd dogs heading off to Australia as soon as that ban comes in place, one would assume they'd be breeding over there, they'd be racing over there, and arguably they could be injured over there.