Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has described as a "pack of lies" a campaign video by animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) that attacks Australia's wool industry.
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Mr Joyce said the video's star, guitarist Jona Weinhofen from the band I Killed the Prom Queen, was a man "living in vegan splendour" in California who had little knowledge of shearing practices in Australia.
The comments come after PETA released the video in which Weinhofen describes "very cruel" treatment of animals by shearers and the mistreatment of lambs through the controversial practice of mulesing.
He holds what appears to be the carcass of a bloody lamb.
PETA has come under fire for not disclosing in the video that the lamb is a prop and not a real carcass.
"There are certain times where you should let things go through to the keeper and other times where you see something where you just look at it and say, 'It's a load of rubbish, in fact it's a pack of lies'," Mr Joyce said on Monday.
"I was talking to shearers yesterday and shearers who feel completely insulted by what is being alleged. Mr Weinhofen has turned up with a prop and said it was a sheep and completely disparaged the whole of the shearing industry, an industry which is our third largest rural export worth about $2.8 billion a year."
Mr Joyce said Australia's wool industry supported 25,000 farming families and that if practices of the nature alleged in the video were occurring, the shearers responsible would be sacked.
But PETA has defended the advertisement and said it followed an investigation into shearing sheds across three states in Australia that found widespread cruelty.
PETA has posted videos from the investigation on its website and a spokeswoman said they showed "systemic abuse, including sheep being punched kicked, stomped on and beaten around the head with electric clippers and even a hammer".
"Investigators witnessed abuse in every one of the 19 shearing sheds they visited and the Australian Shearing Contractors Association has admitted that abuse is a very real problem within this industry," she said.
"The public has been shocked and disgusted to see the treatment of Australian sheep. Rather than trying to distract from the very real issues at hand, the Minister for Agriculture should be looking to address the horrific abuse of these gentle animals."
