However, Mr Thompson does not believe stopping live Australian cattle exports to Vietnam is the answer.

Rather, he believes if Australia stays involved, we can bring pressure to bear on the Vietnamese to slaughter livestock in a more humane way.

“If we don’t stay involved we can’t influence them in their methods of killing cattle,” he said.

Animals Australia has said it has shocking and distressing images showing animals having their skulls repeatedly smashed at an abattoir in Vietnam’s north.

A group spokesperson said the killing of cattle and buffalo through repeated blows to the head with a sledgehammer was the traditional method of slaughter in Vietnam.

“Every cattle producer in Australia will be sickened by this,” Mr Thompson said. 

“I was appalled to read about it.” 

Mr Thompson said Australia was a key supplier of live cattle to Vietnam and as such was in a powerful place to change the way things were done in that country.

Mr Thompson added that Australian cattle producers were only now starting to recover from the cessation of exporting live cattle to Indonesia five years ago.

“I believe we have a very good agriculture minister in Barnaby Joyce. He will have learned from the Indonesian fiasco," Mr Thompson said. “I don’t think there will be any knee-jerk reactions from this government.

“We need to tell Vietnam this is not good enough and that we will work with them to improve their slaughtering practices.

“If Vietnam does not co-operate, then of course we must consider our course of action."