Aussie Farms: ‘Hypocritical’ Chris Delforce leaves his family off farm map

Chris Delforce has defended his decision to not include his own family member’s cattle farm on his controversial map, saying it only pinpoints places of “suspected cruelty and exploitation”. Here’s why thousands of farmers could now sue for defamation.

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EXCLUSIVE: FARMING family members of prominent animal activist Chris Delforce are not listed on his controversial Aussie Farms map.

The Weekly Times can reveal at least one of Mr Delforce’s relatives, who runs a cattle farm in NSW, is not on the map.

This is despite Mr Delforce, the executive director of the registered charity, saying the map was “not opt-in transparency” when it launched earlier this year.

Mr Delforce is friends with his farming family members on Facebook, who publicly post pictures of their farm.

His farming relative did not want to comment on the map when contacted by The Weekly Times.

When asked why his family were not on the map, Mr Delforce claimed the map had “never” listed individual farmers or their families, despite the fact most of the farms listed on the map are family run.

“The map has never pinpointed individual farmers or their families. It pinpoints the locations of businesses known or suspected to be engaging in animal cruelty or exploitation,” he said.

It is the first time Mr Delforce has claimed the almost 6000 farmers and businesses on the map are “known or suspected to be engaging in animal cruelty or exploitation”.

Matt Tonissen from Chrome Sheep Stud at Hamilton, one of the family run farms on the map, said it was disappointing someone who had never been to his family’s farm could make this claim.

“Where is the evidence of this animal cruelty or exploitation,” Mr Tonissen said.

“It is hypocritical that his own family are not on there”.

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Macpherson Kelley litigation lawyer Samantha McGeogh said Mr Delforce risked legal action by drawing links between the farmers on the map and animal cruelty.

“If Mr Delforce is unable to back up those claims then he could potentially open himself up to a defamation claim by those farmers or their families whose names have been included on the map,” she said.

Victorian Farmers Federation egg group vice-president Brian Ahmed, who had activists break into his Werribee farm, said activists should abide by the same principles of the transparency they promoted.

“If his family doesn’t want to be on the map, why is it good for the rest of us?”

The Weekly Times revealed last week Mr Delforce’s mother Julie, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade agriculture official, is being investigated after it was reported she had a link to Aussie Farms.

DFAT would not provide an update on the probe and Trade Minister Simon Birmingham declined to comment.