The live exports debate has been reignited following the death of more than 4,000 sheep on a ship bound for Qatar.
The sheep died in August from heat exhaustion, after spending 21 days on-board a live exports ship, which left Fremantle for Qatar.
According to The Newcastle Herald, Jordanian-owned company LSS is based in Perth and is already under investigation for two breaches of live export regulations in Jordan and Gaza.
Details of August’s incident are expected next week.
Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said the incident was further evidence that the live exports trade in Australia needs to end. "This is the worst animal disaster at sea in recent history and another damning example of how the government continues to fail animals in the live export trade," she said.
"The only solution to end this horrific suffering is to end live exports and rebuild our domestic meat manufacturing by moving to chilled box meat exports."
However, the federal government's Department of Agriculture says these suggestions fail to consider strong cultural preferences for freshly slaughtered meat in Middle Eastern countries.
A statement issued by LSS said the sheep were loaded according to Australian standards but died during an extreme weather event on day 21 of the voyage.
“"Industry and Government supported heat stress risk modelling computer software was used to assess this voyage and is used by the company to assess all voyages to the Middle East and northern Hemisphere destination,” it read.
The statement adds that LSS has abided by government directives to increase space requirements for sheep and that this reduced mortality rates on-board.
"The Department of Agriculture increased the minimum space requirements for sheep by 10 per cent above Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock requirements for the next consignment of livestock on the vessel," LSS said.
"LSS complied with this requirement and the next voyage in November 2013 resulted in a low mortality rate of 0.02 percent."
The live exports trade has been an ongoing point of contention in Australia, following a number of recent incidents including the airing of footage on the ABC of animal cruelty practices at Egypt's Ain Sokhna and Ismailia facilities, as well as the infamous 2011 ban on live exports, also prompted by footage of animal cruelty practices in an Indonesian abattoir.
The ban was heavily criticised by the cattle industry with farmers arguing their livelihood had been threatened – an argument which gained traction once the Indonesian government cut its intake after the ban was lifted.