Biosecurity enhanced

ANIMAL activists found trespassing on Victorian farms in future could be fined double under new biosecurity laws that are being debated in state parliament.

The state government believes the new Biosecurity Legislation Amendment (incident response) Bill 2023 and its new penalties are designed to strengthen the state’s response to animal diseases.

The Bill will see the highest penalty for unlawful entry on to agricultural properties increase from $11,538.69 to $23,077.20 for individuals and from $57,693 to $115,386 for organisations.

On-the-spot fines will also increase from $1,346.17 to $2,307.72 for individuals and from $8,653.95 to $11,538.60 for organisations.

The new laws also include the introduction of offences for “damaging, defacing or removing” biosecurity signage displayed on farms, as well as penalties for people who remove or replace identification tags on livestock or who fail to follow biosecurity and traceability requirements.

Victorian Farmers Federation vice president Danyel Cucinotta was in full favour of introducing stronger punishment to deter animal activists breaking the law.

“We absolutely welcome harsher penalties for breaking biosecurity on any farm,” Ms Cucinotta said.

“The Victorian agricultural economy is worth about $18 billion – if something happened to get it, it could decimate the entire industry.”