The debate around unauthorised filming on farms is intensifying, amid a rise in drones and the use of social media to expose animal cruelty.

Tougher penalties are among the options being considered by a parliamentary inquiry in New South Wales, which held its first and only hearing on Tuesday.

But it is facing opposition from animal rights groups, and even some in the farming sector are cautious about such a move.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party wants laws which would compel animal rights groups to share any footage of alleged cruelty with police, not the media.

Egg Farmers of Australia chief executive officer John Dunn said he was concerned such laws would further divide farmers and animal rights groups.

John Dunn from Egg Farmers Australia warns tougher surveillance laws could further divide farmers and animal rights activists. ( ABC News )

"It has the potential to either inflame the problem, or not discourage the activity whatsoever," Mr Dunn told the inquiry.

New South Wales piggery farmer Ean Pollard said he had nothing to hide at his piggery, which has been the target of animal rights activists in recent years.

In response to the secret filming of a NSW piggery by animal welfare campaigners, farmer Ean Pollard made his own video. ( Lateline )

He said it was the nature of the activism that worried him.

"We're more than [happy] to sort of show people what we're doing, but not at three o'clock in the morning," Mr Pollard said.

"We get angry activists ringing us and it's all anonymous and you never quite know who it is or where they're coming from.

"They base their views on stuff that's taken out of context."

Ability to expose animal cruelty could be curbed

Stricter laws may make it harder for drone footage of animal abuse to be gathered. ( Supplied: Kieran Shephard )

Drones and other surveillance technology is making it easier for animal rights groups to share what is happening beyond the farm gate.

However, animal rights groups and media organisations argue that recordings exposing alleged cruelty on farms could become impossible to gather under stricter laws.

Sarah Waladan from commercial broadcasters lobby group FreeTV said many exposés which have sparked changes in animal welfare laws would not have been possible without illegally-obtained footage.

"Our view is if this bill was in place during the time that there was the investigations around the greyhound industry or the live export industry, those things wouldn't have come to light," Ms Waladan said.

Balancing right to privacy against public interest

While there are varying trespass laws across each state, Australian Privacy Foundation chairman David Vaile said only a national privacy tort could fix the problem.

He said Australia was far behind other countries like New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, which do have such a civil law.

"Nowadays, the technology means that individuals can harass you very easily and you can't really respond to them," Mr Vaile said.

"Whether [drones] are snooping over a farmer's fence or whether they're flying around looking into your bedroom, there's very little you can do about it.

"Farmers don't have the right to sue for people breaching their privacy, and you don't have a forum for discussing what's the proper interest boundary line between the right to be left alone and some public interest test."

Animal cruelty could go unexposed if governments move to further bolster surveillance laws. ( Australian Pork Limited )

Lynda Stoner from Animal Liberation cautiously backed the idea of a national privacy tort, saying it would not necessarily prohibit activists from continuing to expose cruelty.

"But I think they need to be tested in court, I think there are many areas that can't be properly dealt with in parliament that need to be tested by the judiciary," Ms Stoner said.

Ms Stoner warned acts of animal cruelty would go unexposed if governments moved to further bolster surveillance laws.

"It just means more and more of a cloud over the public being able to be aware of what is happening in these places," she said.

"There's already just too many walls around what's happening in these facilities, too few people policing them, and it's only the actions by animal rights activists that bring these things to light."

Some farmers pushing for more transparency

It is not just activists that are casting the lens on farming activity — some in agriculture are taking their own steps to broadcast what is happening on their property.

Peter Matunszny has been live streaming from his free range egg farms on the New South Wales mid north coast for about a decade.

Manning Valley Free Range Eggs director Peter Matuszny on his Upper Lansdowne farm. ( Kim Honan )

He said it aimed to show customers how the food was produced.

"They see the farm as a whole, they see how the birds interact outside," Mr Matunszny said.