New Victorian laws will give police the power to hand out on-the-spot fines to anyone found trespassing on farms.

It is hard to think of any other situation where people could trespass on private land, steal possessions or damage property and get little more than a slap on the wrist.

If someone had come to my house, broke down a door to gain entry and then removed personal property, I would expect them be locked up almost immediately, not face a $1 fine as happened to a previous perpetrator on a Victorian farm.

The fines are $1272 for individuals and $8178 for an organisation and are the toughest of their kind in Australia. If found guilty of particularly egregious acts, the fines can be up to $54,522.

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