NSW animal activists face crackdown

Activists who break into NSW farms to secretly film animal cruelty could be hit with heavy penalties under new biosecurity measures.

Offenders who illegally enter farms and expose livestock to diseases could face up to three years in jail or a $1.1 million fine under the proposed legislation.

It follows a series of cases in which animal welfare advocates trespassed onto shearing sheds, piggeries and abattoirs to obtain undercover footage of inhumane treatment.

NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said unwelcome guests present major economic risks to the state's $12 billion primary industries sector.

"Our intensive farms are highly susceptible to pests and diseases," she said.

"Only last year an outbreak of avian influenza on two properties near Young led to the destruction of close to half a million layer hens."

Tamworth egg producer and NSW Farmers Egg Committee Chairman Bede Burke welcomed the policy.

He said farmers had the same right as city dwellers to be protected against people sneaking around their home, shed or backyard.

Emmanuel Giuffre, legal counsel at animal rights group Voiceless, said the measures were a pretext to introduce US-style "ag-gag laws", which outlaw the filming of factory farms and slaughterhouses in some states, even from public property.

"It's an attempt to stifle free speech," Mr Giuffre said.

"There are already laws to stop trespassing, there are already food safety laws in place, so any law that does target activists is for one purpose - to stop information from being made public."

He said legislators should instead focus on the perpetrators of systemic abuse, through increased training and transparency with CCTV monitoring.

The bill will be re-introduced when NSW parliament resumes after the March election.