Documents containing allegations of animal cruelty were incorrectly released by Tasmania's Primary Industries Department as part of a right to information (RTI) request related to Australia's largest dairy.

The documents were tabled in Parliament on Tuesday and included four reports of animal cruelty which allegedly occurred at the Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL) dairy business over a three-year period.

One of the documents contained references to the "eye gouging" of cows, the use of claw hammers to kill calves and the "breaking of tails by bending them".

In amended RTI documents, the department removed the document containing those allegations.

"There was an error in the information released by the department," Primary Industries Minister Guy Barnett said.

"Only three of the animal welfare complaints related to [VDL] dairy group, the fourth complaint related to a different property."

One of the complaints that was not removed from the release included an allegation that 400 to 500 calves had no bedding and were "placed in a shed on gravel".

An aerial view of VDL's farm holdings lands off the Tasmanian coast. ( www.vandairy.com.au )

The removed complaint, which related to another property, had been sent to Biosecurity Tasmania general manager Lloyd Klumpp, who was questioned in Tasmanian Parliamentary Estimates in June.

However, none of the complaints pertaining to VDL contained in the RTI release made reference to Mr Klumpp.

In a statement, a DPIPWE spokesperson said:

"While some complaints have been made in relation to VDL, these have been followed up and no evidence of breaches of the Animal Welfare Act were found during these inspections."

Lambie, Wilkie, Greens unite in Senate motion

In 2016, Moon Lake, owned by Chinese businessman Lu Xianfeng, paid $280 million for the Van Diemen's Land Company, after then-treasurer Scott Morrison approved the foreign investment, with the company pledging to invest $100 million and create an additional 95 local jobs — but Mr Lu recently admitted that neither of those undertakings had been fulfilled.

Chinese businessman Lu Xianfeng's Moon Lake pledged to create extra jobs. ( Supplied: ningbo.gov.cn )

The Greens have partnered with independent Senator Jacqui Lambie and independent Lower House MP Andrew Wilkie in a new motion in the Senate that calls upon the Federal Government to compel Moon Lake to "invest the outstanding amount of the promised $100 million into VDL farms by 31 July 2020".

"We have a totally unacceptable situation in Tasmania and in this country where we have foreign investment laws that aren't worth the paper they're written on," Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said.

"It's totally unacceptable to all Australians and all Tasmanians that we can have a Government that refuses to enforce the conditions that they put on the purchase of a Tasmanian farm that's supposed to be in the national interest."

Federal MP Andrew Wilkie rejected claims that retrospectively making undertakings enforceable would potentially scare off future foreign investors from making purchases.

"What this does is it sends a clear signal to companies to foreign investors, that if they're going to come into our country they need to abide by our laws, they need to honour their promises ... and if they don't honour the promises they've made, they'll be held to account," he said.

Ms Lambie said the pressure was now on Labor, and particularly its shadow Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, to support the motion.

"I certainly think it would be in the best interest of Labor, and Joel himself, to get behind this and support it. It comes down to our national security, to our food security. That's what it comes down to ... and we're not putting up with it."

On its website, VDL states it is "committed to ensuring that not only do we fully comply with our legal obligations with regard to animal welfare, but that we will adopt best practice in respect of animal welfare".

"Any breach of Tasmanian Government animal welfare laws and Australian Government livestock transport standards, or failure to treat animals humanely is completely unacceptable to our business.

"This policy is not simply concerned with ensuring the absence of cruelty and disease; we have an obligation and a requirement to treat animals humanely, recognising that they are beings capable of feeling, and for which we have an ethical responsibility," the website states.

VDL was contacted as part of this story.

DPIPWE has apologised to VDL for the incorrect information.

Editor's note (02/08/2019): This article has been amended to update references to an allegation of cruelty originally included in an RTI release from Tasmania's Primary Industries Department related to VDL dairy. The Tasmanian Government said on August 1 the allegation was erroneously included in the release, and related to another property.