Spate of farm machinery vandalism sparks outrage

As well as wanting more police, they have called for harsher penalties for offenders to deter further crime which has been escalating throughout the Wide Bay district due, they say, to the Labor government's 'soft on crime' approach.

Childers cane grower Jeff Plath said five of his irrigators were vandalised and water motors that propel the irrigators stolen.

"We are in an irrigation area and we rely on those irrigators...to irrigate our crops. The water motors that were taken are unique pieces of machinery and renders the irrigator useless (when stolen) so we may have to replace the entire unit which is tens of thousands of dollars," he said.

"We lost five irrigators... and that could jeopardise our future cropping enterprise and we will have to replace those irrigators with working models."

Mr Plath said fortunately about a week before Easter they had 100ml of rain, but prior to that they had been irrigating the crop through March.

"To maximise our crop return we have to irrigate and... it (the vandalism) is a potential setback," he said.

Mr Plath, who was not the only one to have his irrigators vandalised, said recent crime had caused a lot of angst throughout the district because the irrigators are left out in paddocks all year.

"You can't just corral them and put them in a compound when you're not using them overnight or over a weekend so they're sitting out in a paddock ready to go for the next dry period and there's a lot of angst out in the community as to how we secure these irrigators," he said.

"These irrigators have been used in the district for decades with no problems before and now all of a sudden part of the operating mechanism ends up in a scrap yard and these thieves have garnered some cash from them and jeopardised our livelihood and potentially others."

Mr Plath said about 30 farmers turned up for a meeting at his farm yesterday to discuss the issue.

"And we were all there for the common purpose of (finding out) how this increasing crime rate can be stopped," he said.

"We're calling on the state government to increase police resources and change the law and look at the justice system and how these criminals are dealt with because frankly the farming community, especially in our area, are sick and tired of what's been happening.

"Utilities have been stolen, obvious things like fuel and batteries, anything that's not secure is (fair) game for them and we're just sick and tired of it."

Mr Plath said farmers were angry, but as law-abiding system citizens they wanted the law to do the job of dealing with crime.

"It's a matter of - do you want a lawless society or a law-abiding society?" he asked.

"And, increasingly locally, it's becoming more lawless - and every citizen, whether you live in suburban Brisbane or regional centres...or out on farms or properties, wants to be able to go about their business and conduct their daily lives without threat of theft or vandalism or trespass," he said.

"Unfortunately, those things are slowly deteriorating and causing a lot of distress in our communities."

Mr Plath said the issue of crime would be a major issue at the upcoming state election because it affects everyone.

A spokesperson for the Police Minister said police advised they had been conducting specific operations targeting these offenders and the vast majority have been arrested, charged and put before the courts.

"Under the LNP there would be far fewer police in Queensland, with the LNP previously committing to slashing the extra police the government has funded by more than 1000 officers," the spokesperson said.

In January, thieves were believed to be using drones to scope out vulnerable and unattended farms after the theft of farm machinery, utes and diesel skyrocketed in the Childers area.

That crime spree prompted canegrower brothers, Gerard and John Russo, to call for a greater police presence in the area with regular patrols, as well as tougher sentencing instead of community service for repeat offenders and a 24/7 CIB unit with more detectives in Bundaberg.