Farm map group may lose charity status

The animal rights group that published addresses of farms and abattoirs could lose its charity status as the federal government seeks to stop it doing it again.

The federal government has asked the charities commission to look at stripping charity status from animal rights group Aussie Farms after it published addresses for hundreds of farms and abattoirs.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud will also ask the attorney-general whether there were privacy or other legal breaches arising from the Aussie Farms map, he said on Friday.

"The publication of home addresses of our farming families is despicable and I won't stand for it," he said in a statement.

"These people don't deserve charity status."

The government would explore all options to see whether any laws had been broken and, if not, to stop it happening again.

"This is the age of the internet and we need modern laws which deal with that," Mr Littleproud said.

"Australia is a free country - you can choose not to eat meat, you can oppose livestock farming but it's not ok to put the addresses of farming families including children online."

The group maintains its publication of the map and farmers' contact details is aimed at giving the public to have as much information as possible about potential cruelty in agriculture.

Aussie Farms founder Chris Delforce has insisted the group is peaceful and has no intention of entering farmers' homes.

Mr Littleproud said on Friday some of the information published was incorrect.

"At one point these people had a picture of a pig in their deer section," he said.

Earlier in the week, the minister and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack warned activists entering farms could actually lead to animals being killed because of biosecurity risks.


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Published 25 January 2019 12:08pm
Updated 25 January 2019 4:19pm


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