A whistleblower hotline will be established to expose animal welfare breaches in the live export trade after revelations of cruelty to sheep.
Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the hotline would be running by the end of the week after a person came forward with video footage showing dozens of distressed sheep struggling to breathe on a ship last August.
"We need to put in place an environment as soon as we possibly can to protect those brave young men and women to come forward and call out bad behaviour," Mr Littleproud told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.