This issues backgrounder updates the 2015 e-brief 'Right to farm laws', focusing primarily on significant developments in Australia.

This report proposes a number of recommendations aimed at addressing stock theft, rural trespass and illegal hunting. These include enhanced penalties for existing offences, an expansion of current regulatory requirements and significant changes to the way the NSW Police Force is currently structured to address rural crime.

Introduction In recent years the farming community has been concerned about the increasing use by animal welfare activists of covert surveillance of farm properties. Several incidents have allegedly involved unauthorised entry and installation of hidden cameras; in one case, Animal Liberation used a drone (otherwise known as an “unmanned aerial vehicle”). Farmers complain that this...