Farmer victims of rural crime wave in Victoria need help riding it out

THERE is a crime wave across Victoria. And no, it doesn’t involve African gangs, writes ED GANNON.

Portable valuables: With sheep prices at near-record highs, farmers fleeced of their stock can lose thousands of dollars in a single strike.

THERE is a crime wave across Victoria.

And no, it doesn’t involve African gangs.

It is a relatively hidden crime wave, because the victims often don’t report that they have been affected.

While African gang crimes capture plenty of attention, crimes that hit our farming community go virtually unnoticed.

But this week The Weekly Times reveals that more than two thirds of Victorian farmers have been a victim of crime.

These crimes may not be as headline grabbing as a gang bashing an innocent victim on St Kilda Beach.

But they hurt their victims nonetheless.

The new statistic comes from a survey of 800 farmers, the biggest of its kind.

But more worrying than the actual rate of crime is that up to 50 per cent of farmers who have been victims of crime haven’t bothered to report it to the police.

It is estimated up to 3000 cases each year go unreported.

And the main reason for that is that they don’t think the police will do anything about it.

Rural crime ranges from theft of livestock to stealing wool, pumps, fencing material and solar panels.

Theft of each of these items increased dramatically in the past 12 months.

Livestock is the big one, particularly with the price of easier-to-pinch sheep at record highs. And in the case of sheep theft, it can be weeks before a farmer realises their flock is smaller.

Yet a farmer fleeced of a portion of his flock can lose thousands of dollars.

The Weekly Times reports three cases of farmers seeing drones fly over their properties, even peering into sheds, to presumably see what there is to steal.

Victorian Farmers Federation livestock president Leonard Vallance recently installed an $8000 24-hour camera surveillance system after discovering a drone over his Ouyen farm at night.

The Federation University survey found the main reasons farmers gave for not reporting crimes were the belief there was not enough evidence to prove a theft, difficulty showing a crime occurred and a belief police would do nothing.

That final one is the hot-button issue.

For years Victoria had a dedicated squad that investigated livestock theft. That was disbanded in 1995 by the Kennett Government. (Ironically, the Liberal-Nationals campaigned in the recent election to bring the squad back.)

There is a Band-Aid police measure called Agricultural Liaison Officers, but these are under-resourced coppers trying to do their best along with their everyday police work.

Farmers have pleaded with successive government to reinstate the livestock squad, police who know their way around a saleyard, and can pick up when a pen of sheep doesn’t look quite right. They point to NSW, which has a dedicated rural crime squad.

But alas, rural crime in Victoria suffers politically compared to the glare of marauding gangs in the Melbourne CBD and, before that, the underworld wars.

It’s pretty hard to compete for resources, especially when the report of a crime is that a farmer “thinks” some sheep have been stolen.

As the VFF’s Leonard Vallance says: “Twenty five per cent of Victoria’s population lives in regional Victoria, but do we get 25 per cent of government spending? No way. And it is not just in policing but in all sorts of areas that contribute to this; less social support we know leads to more criminal activity.”

Rural crime may sound benign, charming perhaps, considering our alternate national anthem, Waltzing Matilda, celebrates a sheep duffer.

But it is real crime.

There are real victims who suffer real loss.

And they are no less deserving than the victims of other crimes.

• Ed Gannon is The Weekly Times publisher

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