McKenzie: Aussie Farms ‘selfish’ for going global under Aussie name

Animal activist group Aussie Farms and its supporters are selfish for denigrating Australia’s reputation by taking its map global, says Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie.

Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie has slammed Aussie Farms’ intentions to take its map global.

EXCLUSIVE: AGRICULTURE Minister Bridget McKenzie says she is “absolutely appalled” by animal activist group Aussie Farms’ messaging and intentions to take its controversial map global under the “Aussie” name.

“We’re recognised world wide on premium world class food and fibre … to have our reputation degenerated at a time when we are expecting to grow our trade footprint is extremely disappointing,” she told The Weekly Times.

“It shows how selfish and self centred Aussie Farms and its supporters are.”

The Weekly Times revealed this week Aussie Farms plans to take the map global and international farming leaders’ calls to shut it down.

Senator McKenzie said the animal activism movement was “a concern to all nations” and she had recently spoken to European agriculture ministers about the issue.

“I’m sharing what we’re doing as a Government with other agriculture ministers around the world so they can push back against a worrying trend to shut down livestock production,” she said.

Aussie Farms is under investigation for compliance with Australia’s Privacy Act and new federal laws that make it illegal to use a carriage service, such as the internet, to incite trespass, are being debated in Parliament.

Mr Delforce told a Senate committee on Monday he would not pull his website down even if the laws passed.

“Well … see him in court,” Senator McKenzie said. “At end of day it will become law.”

“They are not protesters they are criminals.”

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A spokeswoman for New Zealand’s peak farming body Federated Farmers told The Weekly Times that they were unaware of the map, despite it already listing farms in their country.

“It certainly sounds like an aggressive anti-farming tactic and it would be very sad to see it become active here,” she said.

Meanwhile, NSW Farmers have called-out “ill-informed” activists for using images from overseas to illustrate Australian egg farming.

NSW Farmers egg committee chair Brett Langfield said activist groups continue to say battery cages systems are used for caged eggs despite them being phased out and replaced with conventional cage systems.

“Many submissions to the recent (state) Upper House inquiry into egg production showed that the public are not aware that battery hens are no longer in use,” he said.

“It was also noted in this inquiry that some activist websites are using images that are from abroad and do not truly represent the industry.”