A CASE that could determine the legality of all illicit abattoir footage reached Canberra’s High Court yesterday.

After a day-long hearing the court adjourned proceedings to allow parties a month to provide further submissions.

The case concerns who owns footage of goat processing at Victoria’s Game Meats Company of Australia (GMC) Pty Ltd.

Supporters packed the court yesterday (May 5) as activist group Farm Transparency International Limited (FTI) appealed against a Federal Court injunction banning them from distributing the illegally gained footage publicly.

At issue is a 14-minute kill-floor compilation filmed by trespassers between January and April 2024, depicting goat processing at Victoria’s Game Meats Company (GMC) Eurobin facility.

The trespassers installed hidden cameras by drilling or cutting holes in the ceiling, including one near a 415-volt power cable, the court was told.

In May 2024 activists sent the footage to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and Channel Seven. The TV station did not broadcast the footage but published stories regarding the alleged animal cruelty at the abattoir.

The footage was published online by FTI’s agency Farm Transparency Project (FTP).

However, a temporary injunction forced FTP to remove it within hours.

The matter was heard during a Federal Court trial in August 2024.

The court heard from the on-plant veterinarian employed by the Commonwealth, Dr Karl Heinz Texler, who gave evidence that the footage depicted neither animal cruelty, nor non-compliance with the relevant Australian animal welfare standard.

GMC noted that the trespassers “subjected the abattoir to potentially very serious biosecurity risks”.

After FTP admitted trespass on at least seven occasions, the court awarded GMC $130,000 in damages, but denied a permanent injunction against the footage.

GMC’s deposition noted: “General damages would not come remotely close to what the court should hope to achieve by way of deterrence of conduct that is very plainly obnoxious to public conscience.”

A further injunction, issued last August, awarded GMC copyright over the footage.

The activists opposed the injunction on grounds that it would breach their implied right to political communication under the Australian Constitution.

GMC appealed to the full court of the Federal Court, which granted an injunction on the footage and ordered its destruction. It was the first time that the Federal Court had made such a decision in response to an act of trespass.

However, this order was stayed, pending the outcome of the special leave application to the High Court. This week’s hearing is the fifth time the issue has faced court.

Images from the Farm Transparency Project Facebook page showing activists from Melbourne gathering for the Canberra hearings

High Court outcome to set precedent

On FTP’s Facebook page, the activists have said: “The High Court will be the final arbiters on this case, with the outcome setting a binding precedent for future animal cruelty investigations in Australia.

“FTP will argue that the footage, which shows numerous instances of animal cruelty in breach of welfare requirements, as well as standard animal slaughter practices, should be allowed to be published and that the organisation should retain copyright over the footage that they captured.”

On its Facebook page the group also claims that “a senior Department of Agriculture employee tipped off the Game Meats Company slaughterhouse about evidence of daily cruelty we’d captured in their northern-Victorian facility.”

The group has launched a crowd fund-raising campaign to help pay for legal costs.

Under Australian law it is generally held that copyright in a film or a photograph is owned by the photographer or film-maker.

The High Court also received oral submissions from the Human Rights Law Centre and the Alliance For Journalists’ Freedom as the case focuses on who owns copyright of the illicit footage.

Irrespective of the copyright issue, the law centre and alliance argued that the Court “should take into account the public interest in the publication of the information contained in the material”.

The activists have also had support from legal aid group, the Animal Defenders Office, which has said: “Massive day of animal law in the High Court of Australia today! …

If the lower Court’s decision is upheld, it would result in the permanent suppression of this footage, despite the fundamental public interest in knowing how sentient animals in Australia are treated and slaughtered for human consumption.

“We congratulate Farm Transparency Project for bringing this case to the highest court in the land and for trying to force transparency on an industry desperate to keep its practices hidden from the public.”