NSW premier Mike Baird has apologised for his plan to ban the greyhound racing industry from July 2017, saying “we got it wrong.

“I got it wrong. Cabinet got it wrong. The Government got it wrong,” he said, announcing the shut down will be overturned to give the industry another chance.

“We believed that the only response was to shut down the industry,” he said. “We also thought the community would also see that.”

Baird said the feedback was that while people were “horrified” by the findings of the government’s Special Commission of Inquiry, which found extensive and systematic animal abuse, but “they also said ‘why did you not give the industry one last chance?’.”

“I’m sorry. That is something we should have done,” he said.

The premier said his personal conviction has not changed, but “the first path we chose was wrong”.

Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn