For the first time, 60 Minutes has broadcast footage from inside a live sheep export vessel, showing what life is really like for our animals on board.

Brave young trainee navigator Faisal Ullah spoke exclusively to reporter Liam Bartlett after secretly recording video on board five live export voyages on the giant livestock carrier, Awassi Express.

No one has ever captured these scenes before.

For the first time, horrifying footage from inside a live sheep export vessel has been released. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)

READ MORE: How 60 Minutes busted the dark side of live exportation

“Once I was on board the ship, and when I saw the animal's condition on board, it was just, I mean, terrible inside,” Ullah told Bartlett.

The footage detailed serious breaches of Australian export regulations, animal cruelty laws and deliberate, callous treatment of Australian animals.

Ullah’s vision was recorded for the animal welfare group Animals Australia who co-operated with 60 Minutes in a long investigation.

He sailed from Fremantle to several ports in the Middle East.

Faisal Ullah secretly recorded the conditions on the boat. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)

On board, the sheep were stacked 10 storeys high and forced to stay standing for three weeks – that’s if they survived the trip.

After three weeks, the ship reached blast-furnace conditions of summer in the Persian Gulf.

On one voyage, ship records confirm more than 880 sheep died in one day from heat stress. That’s one death every two minutes.

The ship sailed from Fremantle to the Middle East. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)

"They just died in front of us," Ullah said. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)

The next day, 517 died. This "death zone" heatwave continued for five days.

Leading animal welfare scientist Professor Clive Phillips told 60 Minutes he had never seen anything so distressing as Ullah’s secret video footage, where many of the sheep appeared to just "give up and die".

“It's a behaviour I'd read about, I'd never actually seen it,” Phillips said.

“It is deliberate cruelty because the exporters know what the animals may face during the voyage.”

More than 880 sheep died in a single day. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)

Export regulations state “any sick or injured livestock be given immediate treatment and be killed humanely where euthanasia is necessary”.



However as Ullah’s vision revealed, the vet on board simply couldn’t keep up.

“They just died in front of us,” Ullah revealed.

“Just one by one. One after another.

“It is as same as putting animals into the oven. I mean, you are just putting live animals into the oven.”

Live export regulations also state that no pregnant sheep are to be loaded on these vessels.

Lambs were killed and thrown overboard. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)

However as 60 Minutes revealed, not only are sheep giving birth on board, but the crew are then cutting the throats of lambs and throwing them overboard.

“I have seen a lot of really young lambs died,” Ullah said.

“They’ve been crushed under the feet of other animals. It’s so distressing.

“They just go over the side [of the vessel].”

The live export sheep trade earns Australia an average of $250 million a year.

A large percentage of those profits go to Graham Daws, the boss of Perth-based Emanuel Exports.

The industry inducted him into its Hall of Fame last year.

Mr Daws declined 60 Minutes’ request for an interview, referring Bartlett instead to the industry body and Chief Executive of the Australian Live Exporters Council, Simon Westaway.

Mr Westaway argued Australia has the best live export standards worldwide.

“Reality is Australia actually has the best standards in the world when it comes to livestock exports and movement of livestock by transport,” Westaway said.

However the 60 Minutes – Animals Australia investigation shows that the laws are not being enforced on the high seas.

This comes as a sudden, unexpected shock for Australian politicians.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud recently replaced the live export industry’s biggest cheerleader, Barnaby Joyce.

Speaking to Bartlett Saturday morning after seeing a preview of the 60 Minutes story, Littleproud declared the Live Export industry faces an investigation and potential ban.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has vowed to change the live exports industry. (60 Minutes) (60 Minutes)

“No one’s beyond reproach in this and I don’t give a rats. I’m going to go and make sure the sun shines on in this. It’s too important to us to not get this right,” Littleproud said.

According to Littleproud, the next live, long-haul export voyage must carry fewer animals and an independent inspector reporting back daily to Canberra.

This morning, the Minister told TODAY that the footage left him "shocked to the core" and said that if standards were not breached, then they are simply not good enough.

"I've already asked the Department (independent authority on live exports) for a 'please explain' on this, even before I saw the footage," he said.

"I received a report that basically said this shipment met all the stadnards. I had some serious concerns about that and asked them immedaitely to give me a brief about whether their actions were satisfactory. I'm still reviewing that brief.

"I intend to make sure that we're a fair country and that everyone gets a fair go but the reality is... if standards haven't been breached here today, then really, the standards aren't good enough.

"If they're not I intend to work collaboratively - I'm meeting with Animals Australis and the RSPCA and industry today to get a way forward."

Jail terms could be a potential consequence for company directors that breached regulations.

“It’s important we get integrity back into the industry,” Mr Littleproud said.

The RSPCA has also slammed the industry, calling on the Federal government for an immediate suspension to the Australian live export trade. (60 Minutes). (Nine)

“Those doing the wrong thing must be held to account. I don’t intend to take a backward step.

“Everything is on the table.”

Increased penalties are already before Parliament, but Mr Littleproud will work with the Opposition to look at making them even tougher.

He’s also asked the Attorney-General to investigate the industry regulator’s powers, capabilities, and culture.

The exporter is once again Emanuel Exports, run by Graham Daws.

Daws has issued a statement saying his companies will work in a fully co-operative manner with the regulator and reduce the number of sheep on summer voyages.

The Live Exporters Council also signalled it will make urgent improvements.

In response today, the RSPCA also slammed the Australian live export industry, saying the footage released from the voyages represent an "obvious failure to achieve the high standard of animal welfare which Australia expects"

"Emanuel Exports is the largest exporter of live sheep from this country. There is every reason to believe that what we saw on those five voyages last night is typical of what occurs on every voyage that takes place from Australia’s shores," RSPCA chair Gary Humphries said.

"Particularly in those summer months between May and October… when conditions onboard those ships are horrific and the mass deaths of sheeps is almost inevitable.

"We believe, as the RSPCA, that there is an irreconcilable conflict between animal welfare and the continuation of this trade and we are therefore calling on the government to enact the immediate suspension of the live sheep export trade from this country."

Mr Humphries also said that the suspension would not need to cost Australian farmers access to the Middle Eastern market, saying sheep could be sent to Australian abbatoirs for humane slaughter and then transported to the region as chilled or frozen meats.

RSPCA chief scientist Bidda Jones also responded to Mr Littleproud's reaction to the footage, saying he should be wary that the treatment of the sheep in the videos could be representative of all exporters and vessels involved in the Australian live export trade.

"These vessels were all signed off by the Australian government as meeting the Australian standard for the export of live stock. So, they're compliant when they leave Australia with those standards. Those are the standards that all other vessels are working under," she said.

"There is no difference between the vessels that other operators use in terms of the standards of sheep and no exporter can control the temperature and humidity that these animals are going into in the Middle East.

"We are concerned that (Littleproud) may not see the significance of this. This is not just one exporter, this is not just one vessel. These are Australian standards that are inqadeuate to meet the health and welfare of livestock.

"The Minister and Department, under current leigislation, must be satisfied that the health and condition of livestock will be maintained throughout the live export voyage. That's the law. We don’t believe from this evidence that that is possible.

As for Faisal Ullah, the brave young whistleblower, he knows he’ll be black-listed from ships forever.

All he wants is for Australians, particularly farmers, to see the truth.