Senator Fiona Nash. Pic: Andrew Meares
DEPUTY Nationals leader Senator Fiona Nash has taken aim at opposition leader Bill Shorten for controversial comments in relation to the role women play in child care.
During an announcement of a $3 billion childcare package to increase subsidies at the weekend, Mr Shorten described women as having the "second job in the family" and were relied on to organise child care.
His calls were met with opposition by the coalition.
"Let's face it, men in Australia rely on the women in Australia to do the childcare and to organise childcare," Mr Shorten said.
"Where you've got mums working part-time or fulltime, it's the second job in the family, and frankly they're doing a lot of the unpaid work - they've got to try to work out the childcare bills."
Speaking in Tamworth on an unrelated matter on Monday an unprompted Senator Nash took aim at Mr Shorten and questioned why his Labor colleagues had not publicly condemned his actions.
"I think that Bill Shorten's disgraceful comments yesterday saying that men were having to look to their little women to look after childcare were simply appalling, she said.
"That is pre-historic language and I'm extremely surprised that Tanya Plibersek and other Labor women haven't come out and condemned Bill Shorten for making those comments."