While visiting Queanbeyan on Thursday, Greens MLC David Shoebridge hit out at a proposal to reintroduce the sport to the city if it was successfully banned in the ACT.

“Queanbeyan should not become a refuge for an industry that is founded on cruelty,” Mr Shoebridge said.

“The thought that either the NSW government or Queanbeyan would spend tens of millions of dollars to build infrastructure for an industry that has almost no social licence is quite remarkable.

“It is an industry that should have no future either in NSW or the ACT.”

NSW deputy premier John Barilaro said last Saturday he would welcome greyhound racing to Queanbeyan if it no longer had a home in the ACT.

He said it represented a “new era of greyhound racing."

The Canberra Greyhound Racing Club expressed its intention to accept Mr Barilaro’s offer and move their operation to Queanbeyan if the ACT ban goes ahead.

Local Greens candidate, Peter Marshall, who will contest the September council election, joined Mr Shoebridge in condemning the greyhound industry for both its social and economic impacts.

“It’s a blank cheque at the moment, how much the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council would be up for,” Mr Marshall said.

Both men said should the proposal go ahead, the Greens would fight to keep greyhound racing out of Queanbeyan.

Mr Shoebridge said it was unacceptable for Queanbeyan to be considered as a place for Canberra’s unwanted industries.

“If this is the deputy premier’s vision for Queanbeyan, to invest in a dying industry, it goes to show how little vision he has in the area,” he said.

“It’s an industry whose time has passed and if you test the views of most NSW residents they share that view.”