I am not writing this because I have a passion for racing, either. I am writing this because I have a passion for the Rule of Law.
There is a famous story in Germany, perhaps apocryphal but legally vital, about Frederick the Great and the Miller of Sanssouci. The King wanted to extend his summer palace, but a noisy windmill stood in his way. He offered to buy it. The miller refused. The King threatened to simply seize it. The miller replied calmly: “Yes, Your Majesty. If it were not for the Supreme Court in Berlin.”
Even an absolute monarch in 18th-century Prussia understood that there were limits to power. The King could not simply take what he wanted because it annoyed him.
I fear New Zealand’s Minister for Racing has forgotten the lesson of the miller.
The Government has introduced the Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill. Its purpose is to ban commercial greyhound racing from 1 August 2026. You may agree with that purpose. You may think the industry has lost its social license. That is a political debate, and it is fair enough.
However, as a German-trained academic lawyer, I look at how this Bill achieves its objectives. I see a legislative sledgehammer that smashes the furniture of civil society.
In my legal education, we were taught to revere the Rechtsstaat, the state based on the rule of law. The German Basic Law, our constitution, has specific safeguards to prevent the state from becoming a predator. This Bill pulls the trigger while ignoring every single one of them.
First, consider the “package deal” clause, also known as the Junktimklausel. In Germany, the state can take your property for the public good, but Article 14 of our Constitution imposes a strict condition. The law that takes the property must also specify the compensation. It is a package deal. You cannot have the taking without the paying.
The New Zealand Bill fails this test spectacularly. It dissolves private racing clubs and orders their assets to be vested in a new state-created entity, the “Greyhound Racing Transition Agency”. Does the Bill guarantee compensation for this seizure? No. It merely says the Agency “must consider whether any action (for example, a payment) is warranted”.
In Germany, such a law would be void ab initio: it would be legally non-existent. It is effectively legalised theft. The state is seizing private assets to fund its own administrative costs and eventually transferring the leftovers to competing industries such as thoroughbred and harness racing. It is Robin Hood in reverse: taking from the banned to give to the favoured.
Second, consider the freedom of association. The state has the right to ban an activity, like racing dogs. But this Bill goes further. It automatically commands the dissolution of the private clubs that hosted the racing.
Imagine the Government banned chess. They could stop you from playing chess. But could they order the dissolution of the “Wellington Chess and Beer Club” and seize its tables? Surely, the club has a right to exist as a social gathering, perhaps pivoting to become a “Checkers and Beer Club”?
Well, not under this Bill. It treats private associations as if they were government departments to be restructured at a Minister’s whim.
Why does this matter to you if you do not care about dogs?
It matters because this Bill is a blueprint for arbitrary power. It targets one industry while leaving others, like horse racing, untouched. Unless the Government can prove that dogs are uniquely different from horses in a way that justifies total destruction versus regulation, this is arbitrary. In a Rechtsstaat, the state cannot act as a bully simply because the victim is unpopular.
This brings me to the Regulatory Standards Act (RSA).
Some politicians view the RSA as red tape. I view it as New Zealand’s version of the “Miller’s Court.” The RSA contains principles that mirror those German constitutional protections: legislation should not take property without fair compensation.
The Government knows its greyhound Bill violates those principles.
How do we know? Because it rushed to introduce the Bill in late 2025, precisely to escape the RSA, which commences on 1 January 2026. Because the Bill was introduced before that date, it is exempt from the RSA’s scrutiny. It is legislative flight capital, rushing for the exit before the border closes.
If we allow the state to use sledgehammers on greyhound trainers because we do not like their sport, we grant the state permission to use sledgehammers on anyone. Today it is the kennel. Tomorrow it could be your farm, your business or your local club.
New Zealand does not need to adopt the German Constitution. But it should listen to the story of the Miller of Sanssouci. Even Kings need principles.
The Regulatory Standards Act’s regulatory hygiene check is the best hope the miller has of sleeping a bit better at night. At least it would require Parliament to acknowledge what it is doing when it seizes his mill.
Dr Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative think tank. This article was first published HERE
Even an absolute monarch in 18th-century Prussia understood that there were limits to power. The King could not simply take what he wanted because it annoyed him.
I fear New Zealand’s Minister for Racing has forgotten the lesson of the miller.
The Government has introduced the Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill. Its purpose is to ban commercial greyhound racing from 1 August 2026. You may agree with that purpose. You may think the industry has lost its social license. That is a political debate, and it is fair enough.
However, as a German-trained academic lawyer, I look at how this Bill achieves its objectives. I see a legislative sledgehammer that smashes the furniture of civil society.
In my legal education, we were taught to revere the Rechtsstaat, the state based on the rule of law. The German Basic Law, our constitution, has specific safeguards to prevent the state from becoming a predator. This Bill pulls the trigger while ignoring every single one of them.
First, consider the “package deal” clause, also known as the Junktimklausel. In Germany, the state can take your property for the public good, but Article 14 of our Constitution imposes a strict condition. The law that takes the property must also specify the compensation. It is a package deal. You cannot have the taking without the paying.
The New Zealand Bill fails this test spectacularly. It dissolves private racing clubs and orders their assets to be vested in a new state-created entity, the “Greyhound Racing Transition Agency”. Does the Bill guarantee compensation for this seizure? No. It merely says the Agency “must consider whether any action (for example, a payment) is warranted”.
In Germany, such a law would be void ab initio: it would be legally non-existent. It is effectively legalised theft. The state is seizing private assets to fund its own administrative costs and eventually transferring the leftovers to competing industries such as thoroughbred and harness racing. It is Robin Hood in reverse: taking from the banned to give to the favoured.
Second, consider the freedom of association. The state has the right to ban an activity, like racing dogs. But this Bill goes further. It automatically commands the dissolution of the private clubs that hosted the racing.
Imagine the Government banned chess. They could stop you from playing chess. But could they order the dissolution of the “Wellington Chess and Beer Club” and seize its tables? Surely, the club has a right to exist as a social gathering, perhaps pivoting to become a “Checkers and Beer Club”?
Well, not under this Bill. It treats private associations as if they were government departments to be restructured at a Minister’s whim.
Why does this matter to you if you do not care about dogs?
It matters because this Bill is a blueprint for arbitrary power. It targets one industry while leaving others, like horse racing, untouched. Unless the Government can prove that dogs are uniquely different from horses in a way that justifies total destruction versus regulation, this is arbitrary. In a Rechtsstaat, the state cannot act as a bully simply because the victim is unpopular.
This brings me to the Regulatory Standards Act (RSA).
Some politicians view the RSA as red tape. I view it as New Zealand’s version of the “Miller’s Court.” The RSA contains principles that mirror those German constitutional protections: legislation should not take property without fair compensation.
The Government knows its greyhound Bill violates those principles.
How do we know? Because it rushed to introduce the Bill in late 2025, precisely to escape the RSA, which commences on 1 January 2026. Because the Bill was introduced before that date, it is exempt from the RSA’s scrutiny. It is legislative flight capital, rushing for the exit before the border closes.
If we allow the state to use sledgehammers on greyhound trainers because we do not like their sport, we grant the state permission to use sledgehammers on anyone. Today it is the kennel. Tomorrow it could be your farm, your business or your local club.
New Zealand does not need to adopt the German Constitution. But it should listen to the story of the Miller of Sanssouci. Even Kings need principles.
The Regulatory Standards Act’s regulatory hygiene check is the best hope the miller has of sleeping a bit better at night. At least it would require Parliament to acknowledge what it is doing when it seizes his mill.
Dr Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative think tank. This article was first published HERE
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