When vegan activists stopped this morning's movement at one of Melbourne's busiest intersections earlier this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called their actions "non-Australian."

Blocking traffic in Melbourne was part of Action Day, a protest against the consumption of animal products, during which activists also chained themselves to equipment in a slaughterhouse and blocked a gas chamber on a pig farm.

Activists said they want people to watch Dominion, a two-hour documentary by American actor Joaquin Phoenix, in which he exposes the routine and inhuman methods of animal husbandry in Australia.

But the actions of a group of vegan activists have also revealed a split in Australian society between animal rights activists and farmers, who annually invest more than 60 billion Australian dollars, or 43 billion US dollars, into the country's economy.

Farmers say that their right to privacy and their ability to run their own business was undermined by activists who posted a map on the Internet with the addresses and contact details of farmers and encroached on private property and even abducted animals. The Australian government sided with the farmers, promising to support anyone who wants to sue protests.