Mr Tom, pet greyhound of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia (1762-96), shared a bed with her lover, the colossal Grigory Potemkin. The greyhound was one of the best loved animals among the royalty and nobility of Europe for centuries, as hundreds of portraits in the great galleries and houses of Britain and Europe attest. The greyhound is an ancient and intelligent breed of dog, almost unique in its man-made evolution for our own purposes – and that, I believe, is what gives us a special moral responsibility for its welfare and preservation.

There is nothing inherently cruel in greyhound racing as such. Any failure to stamp out acts of cruelty is a failure of government responsibility for proper laws, regulations, supervision and the provision of adequate resources to ensure animal welfare. Rather than improving the regulation of the greyhound racing industry in New South Wales, Premier Mike Baird’s Liberal/Nationals government will outlaw it altogether, a tyrannical response masquerading as a humane gesture.

I pass up an invitation to the State of Origin at ANZ Stadium in favour of a night at the Grafton Dogs. I want to express my solidarity with the good men and women whose love for their greyhounds dominates every day of their lives. It is an honour to be called on to make the presentation to the owners of Major Jackpot, winner of the prestigious Village Green Sprinters Cup Final (first prize $7,000). Local husband and wife duo Robert and Tammy confide that they don’t know what they will do when their shared passion – training and racing their greyhounds – is made illegal.

Ask liberals and conservatives what it is that unites them under the banner of the Liberal Party and invariably they will tell you of their shared commitment to freedom. Yet a Liberal Premier leads an administration that will criminalise a whole sport and industry. Mr Baird has chosen to demonise and make pariahs of an entire group of our fellow citizens, those who own and race greyhounds.

There is an unmistakable whiff of class prejudice in all this. For generations, dog racing has been a working man’s sport, part of a culture that is dwindling in the face of the immense changes inevitably taking place in our way of life. The greyhound may not be as popular in Balgowlah as in Blacktown, but outlawing a sport that provides a livelihood to thousands and enjoyment to many tens of thousands of our state’s citizens is an arrogant, cruel, irresponsible and unnecessary decision.

The Labor Party has won a majority of House of Representatives seats in New South Wales. Forgive me for mentioning this, but it has been quite a while between drinks. Nine years to be precise. Those years were best described as character building for those of us flying the NSW Labor flag. Five straight elections across federal, state and local tiers of government delivered us results that ranged between sound beatings and a massacre unprecedented in Australian electoral history. Credit for the NSW Labor revival on July 2 goes firstly to a Victorian.

The experts had agreed that in Australia’s largest city Bill Shorten would not hold a candle to Malcolm Turnbull, supposedly the embodiment of modern, upwardly-mobile Sydney. Yet over the last year Shorten bobbed up everywhere here. He would spend weekends in Sydney in between parliamentary sitting weeks in the national capital. He made himself known in many suburbs of western Sydney by just constantly turning up. Shorten’s striving contrasted with Turnbull’s insouciance. On the morning of July 2 Bill phoned me – from a polling place in Lindsay. The seat fell to Labor later that night, as did two other western Sydney seats.

On Turnbull’s home turf of Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Labor’s member for Kingsford Smith Matt Thistlethwaite recorded a swing in his favour of over six per cent. The major local issue was the destruction of grand old trees around Centennial and Moore Parks by the state government. For months Thistlethwaite has fought to save the historic fig trees. Throughout the federal campaign, and since, much has been made of state government decisions concerning volunteer firefighters in Victoria. Comparatively little analysis has dwelt on state factors north of the Murray. Mr Baird’s forced local government mergers and mass sackings of elected mayors and councillors played a significant role in Labor’s wins in the regional NSW seats of Eden Monaro and Paterson. The failure to deliver more than one million dollars for a promised $380 million upgrade to the overstretched Nepean Hospital in outer western Sydney was crucial to Labor’s upset win in Lindsay.

Grafton Cup Day, the biggest day of the year for the communities of the Clarence River Valley. A half day public holiday sees almost half the population of the Jacaranda City head to the track to watch the horses. I regard my attendance as a duty far from onerous. Twelve months ago here I chatted convivially with Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who went down well with the punters at the track. Bob Hawke was a Grafton Cup regular throughout his prime ministerial years. It’s hard to picture Malcolm Turnbull – or Mike Baird – fraternising a country racing carnival.

At the horse races the topic on everyone’s lips is Mr Baird’s dishlicker debacle. Across the afternoon hordes of locals approach me, incredulous at the ban. This is National Party heartland. The Nats alliance with the Greens and Mike Baird to wipe out this traditional Australian industry will not be quickly forgotten.

The post Dishlicker’s diary appeared first on The Spectator.