The Baird government is being accused of being "undemocratic" after it moved to fast track the passage of its controversial legislation to ban greyhound racing through NSW parliament.
Liberal MP Duncan Gay successfully sought to declare the government's Greyhound Racing Prohibition Bill as urgent before introducing the legislation to the upper house on Wednesday.
The move was labelled a "farce" by Labor's Peter Primrose, who says the opposition was given a copy of the legislation just 10 minutes before parliamentary proceedings commenced.
"The due process accorded to this parliament has been absolutely abused and absolutely trashed," Mr Primrose said.
"How can we expect to go through the bill when we haven't even read it?"
Anyone caught organising a greyhound race after July next year will face a maximum $11,000 fine or up to one year in jail under the proposed new laws.
The government will appoint an administrator who will be in charge of winding up the decades-old greyhound industry by July 1 next year, and manage the affairs of Greyhound Racing NSW in the interim.
Details of the government's financial assistance package for industry members are still being worked out and a date for greyhound breeding to end is yet to be set, Mr Gay said.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley, who's promised to reverse the ban if elected in 2019, said a clause in the bill which states that compensation will not be paid to people affected by the ban was especially cruel.
"The only thing certain here when the coalition and Greens combine to pass this is that thousands of people will be robbed of their livelihoods," he told reporters.
The Greens' Mehreen Faruqi said she would hold the government to account on its promise that all disused racing tracks and public land owned by Greyhound Racing NSW would not be sold off.
"I must say I'm also deeply uncomfortable that the export of dogs remains on the table," she said, while commending the government for enacting the ban to end the "cruel" sport.
Three MPs from within the Baird government's own ranks have said they won't support the legislation but it's unlikely they will cross the floor to vote against the government.
Labor, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and the Christian Democrats' Fred Nile will vote against the government but the bill will have safe passage to the lower house with the Greens' support.
Debate on the legislation is expected to continue late into Wednesday night.
