Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator McDonald, for your question. I know you have a deep and abiding passion for the sustainability and profitability of farmers. This side of the parliament has always supported our farmers and our farming communities through good times and through bad times. That's why we're progressing tough new laws through the Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Bill to protect our farmers from those keyboard warriors who would incite teams of animal activists to trespass on farmland, steal, damage property, and incite, intimidate and harass. That's in the House of Representatives today.

Farm trespass is an incredibly serious issue in regional Australia. Chaining yourself to conveyer belts in abattoirs is, similarly, a serious issue in regional Australia. Farmers have contacted me, questioning their place in the industry, and it's too late for others because they've left altogether. But here we have an opposition and, indeed, their partners in crime, the Greens, refusing to back Australian farmers and refusing to stand with the government to stand against animal activists who would seek to intimidate, harass, steal property and destroy. It's a pretty simple equation. Despite their weasel words, despite heading out into regional areas and despite going on their 'listening tours', it would seem that they haven't been listening, because if they were out in regional communities, and if they were talking to saleyard operators, abattoir operators, farmers and the like, they would know that farmers and regional communities feel very, very strongly about the right for them, their families, their stock and their workers to feel safe at work. This week is National Farm Safety Week, so this is the time for the Labor Party to stand up, break the nexus between the Greens—who really just want to see us stop farming in this country—and support the bill.