A senior vet was expelled from her government role after she exposed the pain and suffering of the live cattle export trade, including animals coated in faeces and dying of heat exhaustion.
ABC's 7.30 program on Wednesday night aired shocking footage and photographs taken by the experienced vet, Dr Lynn Simpson, who monitored the health and welfare of cattle on export ships.
The images depicted animals lying dead on floors centimetres-thick with excrement, which had also contaminated food troughs.
Other cattle lay injured, suffocating or bleeding and barely alive.
"It's just business as usual on these ships. I expect to see leg injuries, I expect to see pneumonia, I expect to see animals drenched in faecal matter," Dr Simpson told the ABC.
"They're not sanitised, [the images] show animals in appalling conditions, there's pain, there's suffering, it's inexcusable and it's confronting."
Dr Simpson was an adviser to the Department of Agriculture's animal welfare branch and made a submission to a government review of live export standards.
Documents obtained by the ABC show her findings were never meant to be made public. However, a staff member accidentally uploaded the report to the department's website.
A senior departmental executive, Karen Schneider, then removed Dr Simpson from her adviser role due to pressure form the live export industry, the documents show.
A letter from Ms Schneider states that Dr Simpson must be removed from the animal welfare branch because "the industry with which we engage has expressed the view that they cannot work with you".
Dr Simpson told the ABC: "For the industry to be able to kick a government employee out of a government job . . . That speaks volumes. I mean, it's a form of corruption.
"I was definitely a clean player in a dirty game and I think it's disgusting that they've shut me down, having come up with such strong, sensible evidence regarding how we can improve this trade."
Dr Simpson is suing the Commonwealth for breach of contract.
The report came just days after the ABC reported workers in Vietnamese abattoirs had been filmed bludgeoning what appeared to be Australian export cattle with sledgehammers. The revelations prompted calls for the government to suspend live exports to Vietnam.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull this week said Australia had "very, very strong animal welfare standards. We condemn cruelty to animals - full stop".