RPNSW supports farmers in the face of activism

Animal activists may have successfully disrupted traffic and some farming operations, but they've turned many Australians off their cause, Minister for Agriculture David Littleproud said.

"If the aim was to stop traffic they've succeeded, but if the aim was to convert Australians to veganism today then these people did huge damage to their cause," Minister Littleproud said.

"Fair minded Australians find this behaviour extreme. I continue to call for calm. Invading people's properties is not the Australian way.” We agree.

The rise in activist intrusions on farming properties seems to be getting out of hand.

Public protesting may be a democratic right, but when activists illegally trespass on private farming land, they place farmers, their families, their workers and their farm products at risk.

The legal system seems to be taking a blasé attitude to many of these ‘without permission or approval’ activities, hitting most of the intruders with a wet train ticket rather than a hefty fine or penalty, somehow deducing that these protests are ‘peaceful.’

Sometimes, the protest are carried out by individuals or small groups, but a new trend towards unruly mobs in invasion garb is emerging, which can be personally confronting and scary if you and your family are the target, particularly if it happens to be in the middle of the night.

Let’s get one thing straight. There can be nothing peaceful about an illegal protest carried out without warning by a angry mob in a remote location, particularly when they involve destruction of farm infrastructure or theft of farm property or animals.

Trespass leads to trauma, and when its streamed on social media, it leads to an invasion of privacy as well.

When a mob takes to the streets in the city, or invades someone’s privacy in their own home, protectors of the law move quickly and apprehend the offenders, who rarely are treated with a slap on the wrist. Farmers deserve the same legal safety net.

Although farmers can erect signs that say “Trespassers will be prosecuted” these signs are not worth a cup of tepid water unless damage is incurred, when prosecution still has to be triggered and run the gauntlet of legal interpretation of privacy and property rights.

There is also the fundamental right of all farmers to go about the business of earning income without being hampered by an army of crackpots with covert and overt agendas to interfere with that right. Surely, that in itself should be worthy of protection and preservation, and warrant a set penalty.

The tendency for privacy invasions in rural areas to expand from individuals into small groups has now exploded into large mobs, but unfortunately mob rule is being misinterpreted in some legal circles as democracy, when in fact it is an invasion of civil liberties and tyranny by rogue minorities.

Home and property invasion are grey areas of the law. You can use reasonable force to eject an intruder, but defining ‘reasonable’ opens another can of legal worms.

It is also said that an owner’s response should not be disproportionate to the threat, but when you are up to your bum in alligators facing a flood of strident serial vigilantes with terrorism tendencies, there is hardly time to consult the dictionary about the meaning of ‘disproportionate’.

It’s time for this nonsensical situation to end. Mob and individual trespass on farm without permission, a permit or a warrant, should attract an automatic severe, but not necessarily draconian penalty of such a size that it at least acts as a deterrent.

All farmers ask is an even playing field, preservation of their dignity, to be understood, treated fairly, allowed to go about their daily business, and to feel safe in the world in which we all live.

Photo: Animal Activists Collective FB page

Posted on Tuesday, 09 April 2019
by Michael Guest in Latest News

animal activists farm security

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