Greens spokesperson for animal welfare Mehreen Faruqi has been spotted giving a speech to protesters and onlookers outside the Royal Randwick, calling the racing industry “insidious” and “cruel.”

“The Everest is promoted as Australia’s ‘richest horse race on turf.’ As if it’s something to celebrate, as if it’s something to be proud of. Well, I can tell you, it is not. It is something to be ashamed of,” Faruqi said.

“It is a sham masquerading as Australia’s richest race, but feeding off billions lost to gambling each year…It is beyond comprehensible that this so-called industry that thrives on cruelty and exploitation of horses is allowed to go on with such gusto it seems. This is a grotesque spectacle built on the suffering of horses.”

Faruqi, an animal rights activist, said the traction around events such as horseracing and greyhound racing were not true representations of what ordinary Australians feel about the industry.

“People going in there [punters] are not really a true indication of what the community in this country feels about horseracing and greyhound racing,” she said.“This anachronistic so-called sport belongs in the dustbin of history… it must be shut down for good. It is really time for a future without horse racing, a future where horses are no longer bred, exploited and discarded at the whim of their owners chasing profits. A future where vast stretches of public land like the Randwick Racecourse are returned to the community, transformed into green space.”

Faruqi said the Greens have pushed for a national ban on horse racing which has yet to be materialised at the federal level.