NFF considers using Farmers Fighting Fund to counter activist threat

THE deep-pocketed Australian Farmers Fighting Fund could be used to launch a legal fight against the animal activists group behind the controversial Aussie Farms map.

National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson. Picture: Wagstaff James

THE deep-pocketed Australian Farmers Fighting Fund could be used to launch a legal fight against the animal activists group behind the controversial Aussie Farms map.

NFF president Fiona Simson said NFF lawyers were exploring legal responses to the “invasive” map, which had left some farmers “hurt, scared and afraid to leave their children home alone for fear of activist attacks”.

Ms Simson said the fighting fund could “potentially” be used to fund legal action.

An avenue being explored was whether actions of the activist group constituted “coercion to commit illegal acts”.

The fund, the value of which is a tightly-guarded secret, has been funding a seven-year class action challenge against the Federal Government’s 2011 live cattle suspension to Indonesia, an outcome for which was expected within the next six months, Ms Simson said.

This long-running battle was an example of the capacity of the fund, she said, and the kind of firepower that could be used if farmers affected by the map had legal recourse.

“The fighting fund is always there, if a case is brought by (an NFF) member and they apply to the fund, and this is the fund’s purpose,” she said.

“At the moment we are not at the stage where the fund is being used,” she said.

Since the map was launched last week, the NFF has been contacted by “several” farmers, whose properties were listed on the map with footage that they claim was illegally obtained.

This footage had been referred to federal and state police, Ms Simson said.

As well as the legal response, the NFF was also progressing the concept of a national campaign to “better represent” farmers — and the entire supply chain — and their care for animals and their environment.

“This latest attack has been incredibly distressing for farmers and is part of a growing arsenal used against farmers by animal activists,” Ms Simson said.

“But it is also important for farm communities to keep in mind that this radical group are only a small minority of the community.

“Farmers are, by and large, law-abiding, responsible people are very happy to run transparent businesses, but revealing people’s home addresses, and personal attacks are unwarranted.”

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