National GetUp director Sam McLean told the crowd in Sydney's Martin Place the animal welfare movement was the most powerful grassroots movement in Australia.
Closest to home for the federal government was Mr Thomson's continuing urgent call for the banning of further livestock shipments to Bahrain or Pakistan until further notice.
The renewed calls for an end to the live animal export trade follow allegations that half of 21,000 Australian sheep offloaded in Pakistan last month - after being rejected by Bahrain - were clubbed, stabbed and buried alive.
Thomson told the Melbourne rally it was "absolutely unacceptable" that Bahrain and Pakistan ignored the conditions they agreed to for the export trade.
He said regulations must include the mandatory stunning of animals before slaughter, while live animal export trade is phased out and replaced with domestic processing.
He called for an independent animal welfare office and said it was clear regulations introduced by the Gillard Government did not work.
"We should establish the abattoirs and domestic processing facilities here in Australia. New Zealand has done it.
"It works perfectly well for them, we can do this too."
- AAP
