ACTIVISTS caught trespassing on Victorian farms could face tougher penalties if an amendment moved in Parliament by the Liberals and the Nationals is successful.
The Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria Melina Bath moved a motion to increase the maximum penalty for farm trespassing to be in line with NSW, and to have river frontage licensed land included as part of farm biosecurity plans.
Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said it was important for this land to be included in biosecurity plans.
“With the licensed river frontage land being excluded from the farm biosecurity plan, it means animal activists can come on to the river frontage,” Mr Walsh said.
“The licensed river frontage is part of a farmer’s farm, and most times is not fenced off, so there is no line to know where to go and where not to go, so it’s a way that activists could enter a farm very easily.”
“These farms are far more than businesses or even livelihoods, they are people’s homes.”
NSW farm trespassing laws include fines of up to $21,809 for individuals, while the proposed maximum penalty in Victoria is $10,904.
“The legislation does put in place the penalties that are necessary, but we don’t believe that the quantum of the penalties is enough,” Mr Walsh said.
Mr Walsh believes activist trespassing is something that farmers have been “extremely worried” about, particularly since the Gippy Goat case in Gippsland in 2019, when a group of animal rights activists stormed a family-owned farm and stole three goats and a lamb, only to be fined $1 for breaking biosecurity laws.
While debate on the issue started in Parliament last week, it was adjourned, so a final vote will not occur until the next sitting week.
“The Greens will be opposing them, and the Government will be opposing them, so it will be very difficult to get through, but we will be pushing hard,” Mr Walsh said.
“It will come down to what the independents in the Upper House think of these amendments as to whether they may or may not get through.”
