Vale Professor Percy Allan AM

Written by Jeff Collerson.

PROFESSOR Percy Allan, the former chairman of the board of Greyhound Racing NSW and a staunch supporter of the sport, has died after a short battle with cancer.

He was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his contribution to public sector reform during his tenure as secretary (head) of the NSW Treasury Department from 1985 to 1999, while from 1999 to 2007 he was chairman of the NSW Premier’s Council on Cost and Quality of Government, which reviewed 25 state government departments.

Professor Allan fought for greyhound racing to receive a fairer share of racing revenue, and in the 2008-2009 financial year went public saying: “Thoroughbred and harness racing has benefited from greyhound racing by $9.2 million.

“Since the NSW Goverment privatised the TAB in 1999, the greyhounds have sponsored the other codes by over $100 million.

“Due to the inter-code funding arrangements introduced in 1999, which set fixed proportion of racing revenue for each code, greyhounds have received only 13 per cent of TAB distribution despite contributing 17 per cent of total TAB revenues.”

Bill Mangafas, former chairman and current director of the NSW Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association, said: “I spent 10 years on the board of GRNSW with Percy Allan and he was a great advocate for our sport, a true champion on our industry’s behalf.

“He promoted animal welfare and helped the sport’s sustainability by being the first to collect data on injuries, as well as being a great communicator on behalf of the industry with not only the government, but also with the clubs and the participants.

“When there was a push to close several country tracks he found a solution to enable them to continue operating and introduced standards of prizemoney to make the industry productive in a positive way.

“It was Percy Allan who got the NSW Government to put the commercial and regulatory arm of GRNSW under the one umbrella.”

From personal experience and inter-action with Percy Allan, I can vouch for him being one of the many influential people who helped overturn the Baird Government’s proposal to ban greyhound racing from July 1, 2017.

The NSW GBOTA, GRNSW and greyhound racing’s participants extend their sincere condolences to the family of Professor Percy Allan on their sad loss.