The ACT's land authority denies it failed a duty to extend Canberra Greyhound Racing Club's lease on its Symonston racecourse, saying it was avoiding a decision facilitating a sport that would become unlawful.
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Lawyers for the ACT Planning and Land Authority at a hearing in the territory's Supreme Court on Thursday said the agency delayed granting or refusing an extended lease because it was expecting a law change that would ban greyhound racing in Canberra.
The greyhound racing club has taken the independent statutory body to court, asking for an order that would force it to grant the extension.
Its legal counsel David Gilbertson told Chief Justice Helen Murrell the club applied for a 50-year extension of its Crown lease in April, before the government announced it would end the sport last June.
The club alleges the planning and land authority has since deliberately kept the application in limbo because of the government's plans to ban the industry.
Speaking for the agency, lawyer Houda Younan said the ACT government had publicly flagged it would end greyhound racing in Canberra as early as October 2016 and had appointed consultant Mary Durkin in March 2017 to consider options to achieve this, before the club's application.
"There was no reason to think there would never be a decision from the government as to how it would end greyhound racing," Ms Younan said.
The land authority delayed its decision not out of neglect, nor accidentally, but because it was concerned about the extent of its authority to grant a lease given pending law changes, and the possibility the agency might sanction an activity that would become unlawful.
"It was a decision that would have had ongoing consequences," she said.
"It was also a question of giving rise to a false expectation on behalf of the plaintiff."
Ms Younan told the court that because a ban on the industry would begin in April, it should not order the lease be extended.
Mr Gilbertson said the planning and land authority had failed to comply with its duty by delaying a decision to extend the lease, which amounted to a refusal.
The club's lawyers tendered to the court an email from May 2017 in which the authority said it decided to delay processing the club's application until it received advice from the minister's office.
The NSW government scrapped plans to ban greyhound racing in the state in 2016, but laws ending the sport in the ACT passed the Legislative Assembly in November, despite no evidence of cruelty in the local industry.
Although the club still had 10 years left on its 50 year lease, it received legal advice that it could apply for the extension once in the last third, documents filed in the Supreme Court last year suggest.
The documents allege that while the application was in order, the planning authority, following discussions with the government, delayed making a decision to approve the lease.
The greyhound racing club has also filed a statement of claim in the Federal Court saying the ban would stop it using its site in the way it was intended and the government had no "just terms" to do so.
Chief Justice Murrell said she expected to reach a decision on the Supreme Court matter as early as next week.
