1. That a select committee be established to inquire into and report on the extent of protection for landowners from unauthorised filming or surveillance and in particular:
(a) the nature of protection for landholders from unauthorised filming or surveillance, including but not limited to installation, use and maintenance of optical surveillance devices without consent under the Surveillance Devices Act 2007,
(b) the extent and appropriateness of penalties for unauthorised filming or surveillance, including but not limited to on-the-spot fines and/or relevant penalties under the Summary Offences Act 1988,
(c) the implications with regard to self-incrimination of the request of disclosure by a person of any recordings made by that person,
(d) the implications of rapidly changing media environment, including social media platforms such as Facebook Live, and
(e) any other related matter.I provided a submission on behalf of the Australian Privacy Foundation
The Committee chair states
Continual incursions by animal welfare activists on farms are having a detrimental impact, not only on farmers and their businesses, but also their families and employees, and the broader community and industry. To have your privacy breached is one thing, and understandably upsetting, but to have distorted footage of your farming business taken and published online is another. The damage this does to one's business and reputation, aside from the personal impacts, is both difficult to quantify and rectify.
While animal welfare activists believe that such incursions help to shine a light on systemic animal cruelty practices, what they fail to recognise is that these incursions themselves can cause considerable stress and injury to the animals they disturb.
Unfortunately though, this inquiry highlighted that there is no simple and easy answer to deal with these illegal activities. What became clear through this inquiry was that both sides of the debate – farmers and animal welfare activists – are concerned with animal welfare. Given this, improving the transparency of animal industries may assist in building public confidence, which is why we have recommended that the NSW Government investigate schemes to increase transparency about food production and animal husbandry practices.
Ensuring that the RSPCA can act effectively to investigate and address animal cruelty is also important. This too may reduce the perceived need for animal activists to trespass on landholder's properties and install unauthorised surveillance devices.
These measures, however, are unlikely to prevent all farm incursions from occurring. Unfortunately there is a cohort of animal welfare activists who have a strong philosophical objection to the killing of animals for human benefit, which is why the laws need to be strengthened to ensure trespass and unauthorised surveillance offences are duly investigated and prosecuted as a particularly serious offence.
As it currently stands, the law is not adequately dealing with these issues, which is why we urge the NSW Government to review the existing legislative framework, in order to identify barriers to enforcement and successful prosecutions. The government needs to focus on how it can enforce the existing laws to make it easy for famers to continue their business in an economic way without continual interruption from animal welfare activists.The report features the following Recommendations
1 23 That the NSW Government review the resources and powers of the RSPCA in regard to the monitoring and enforcement of animal welfare measures, and consider means by which the RSPCA and the NSW Police can work together more effectively to protect animals from mistreatment.
2 23 That the NSW Government encourage animal industries to be proactive in engaging with the community, and collaborate with animal industries to investigate schemes to increase transparency about food production and animal husbandry practices.
3 24 That the NSW Government review the Surveillance Devices Act 2007 to consider whether to insert a public interest exemption for unauthorised filming or surveillance.
4 35 That the NSW Government establish a whole of government working group to review the current legislative framework around unauthorised filming and surveillance and identify barriers to enforcement and successful prosecutions.
5 35 That the NSW Government review the laws and penalties of trespass and unauthorised surveillance to consider the responsibility of those planning illegal activities and whether the offences of trespass and unauthorised surveillance should be extended to office bearers of organisations planning and financing these illegal activities.
6 36 That the NSW Government, through the Council of Australian Governments, raise the need for a comprehensive approach to the regulation of drones across state and federal jurisdictions, with particular regard to the potential privacy and security impacts of the increasing use of drone technology
