Racing Appeals

With the amendments to the Racing Integrity Act 2016, the functions of the Panel will include:

• replacing the internal and external review processes of stewards’ decisions on the rules of racing by QRIC and QCAT
• finalising review applications within prescribed timeframes
• ensuring racing decisions are made in accordance with the law and the Rules of Racing to maintain the integrity of the racing industry in Queensland.

A person may apply to the Panel for a review of a racing decision of a steward to:

• take disciplinary action relating to the person’s approval or licence; or
• take exclusion action against the person; or
• otherwise impose a penalty, whether monetary or non-monetary, on the person.

For more information about the Racing Appeals Panel visit www.racingappealspanel.qld.gov.au.

This means that external reviews of racing decisions made by stewards will no longer occur at QCAT.

The Panel’s decisions are appealable to QCAT in relation to a disqualification action and only on a question of law. Appeals to QCAT can only be made where the penalty imposed by the stewards is 3 months or more and will be limited to the severity of the penalty.

QCAT may consider an application to stay a decision of the Panel but not if the matter involves a finding of a serious risk to animal welfare, human safety or the integrity of racing.

QCAT will continue to have an external review function for some decisions made by QRIC that do not relate to the Rules of Racing. For more information on how to review a racing personnel decision, please see our Racing Personnel page.

Racing decisions may come to QCAT in two ways.

Before applying to QCAT, you should consider the instructions set out in the decision letter issued to you.

Decisions that do not relate to the Rules of Racing, such as licensing decisions (decisions to refuse or grant a license) will continue to proceed through the QRIC internal review process. If you are unhappy with the outcome of an internal review, you can lodge an application for a review of a decision with QCAT.

Decisions made by the Panel can be appealed to QCAT in relation to a disqualification action and only on a  question of law. Appeals to QCAT can only be made where the penalty imposed is 3 months or more and will be limited to the severity of the penalty. Before you apply to appeal a decision, you must ensure the relevant decision letter or information notice issued to you is included with your application forms.

The process to appeal a decision of the Panel, is outlined below when you apply.

The thoroughbred, harness and greyhound industries are governed by QRIC. The rules and regulations relating to each code of racing (thoroughbred, harness, greyhound) can be found on the Racing Queensland website.

In deciding racing appeals on a question of law, QCAT may decide to:

• confirm or amend a decision; or
• set aside a decision and substitute it with its own decision; or
• set aside a decision and return the matter to the original body that made the decision to reconsider it; or
• make any other appropriate orders

Leave (permission) to appeal a the panel's decision is not required when applying to the QCAT on a question of law.

If you make a racing appeal to QCAT, after the appeal application is made QCAT may:

• issue appeal directions to the parties. Appeal directions are instructions to the parties involved on how the matter will proceed. The directions will include time for filing of appeal books, making submissions on questions of law in the appeal, other material and joining/providing the appeal application to further parties if required
• list the matter for a directions hearing if required
• if approved, allow the parties to gather and file further evidence to support their side of the argument
• list the matter for an appeal hearing, after the parties have filed their material; and
• after the appeal hearing, QCAT will then make a final decision based on the law and the material provided by the parties

Whether you are the appellant or respondent in the appeal, once the appeal is received you do not need to do anything further and should wait for further instructions to be issued by the QCAT.

For more information about what happen after an application is made please click here.

The time for QCAT to finalise an appeal may vary depending on QCAT’s workload and the number of steps to be completed by parties as required by QCAT to finalise the appeal. The current average time to consider an appeal and finalise your case can be found on our expected timeframes page.