Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has doubled down on his character assassination of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, labelling him a "fake" who "doesn't have a fair dinkum bone in him".
It follows an extraordinary tirade in Parliament on Wednesday in which Mr Turnbull attacked his counterpart as "a social-climbing sycophant" and a "parasite" who cosied up to billionaires.
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Turnbull v Shorten: Round 2
The Prime Minister has dug his heels in, reiterating his attack on Bill Shorten before taking it even further. Courtesy ABC News 24.
Mr Shorten has in the past week taken to calling the Prime Minister "Mr Harbourside Mansion", a reference to his lavish Point Piper home and a term coined by Tony Abbott's former chief-of-staff Peta Credlin.
"Shorten is complete hypocrite," Mr Turnbull said at a press conference on Thursday. "He wants to play the politics of envy and yet he's been a sycophant to the billionaires of Melbourne for years and years - everyone knows that."
The Prime Minister insisted Mr Shorten's Labor colleagues agreed with his incendiary rant during question time on Wednesday, in which he also accused Mr Shorten of selling out workers while at the Australian Workers Union.
"Those criticisms rang true. The people who know him best are his own colleagues - they know he is a fake, he has no integrity, no consistency. he doesn't have a fair dinkum bone in him," Mr Turnbull said.
"They knew that everything I said about him was true."
The personal attack on Mr Shorten and vice versa marks a descent into character assassination that had so far been largely absent from the political battle between the two party leaders.
![He's a 'complete hypocrite': Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull returns to the topic of Labor leader Bill Shorten's ...](/web/20170209010106im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/8/u/g/a/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu8tv0.png/1486601427610.jpg)
In an apparent reference to his reportedly hostile phone call with US President Donald Trump, Mr Turnbull said he had the ability to stand up to billionaires and "take them on".
"I back myself. I am my own man. I can't be bought by anyone," he said on Thursday. "I don't suck up to billionaires, I look them in the eye and when I need to take them on."
![Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, pictured in question time on Wednesday, says Mr Turnbull has "seriously out of touch ...](/web/20170209010106im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/8/r/x/x/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu8tv0.png/1486601427610.jpg)
Mr Turnbull denied his attack on "social-climbing" was a demonstration of class warfare that took the Coalition away from the aspirational voters it targeted under John Howard.
"I don't think sucking up to billionaires, saying one thing in the well-upholstered living rooms of Melbourne to powerful captains of industry, and another thing on the hustings - I don't think that's what aspirational Australia is about," he said.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during question time on Wednesday.](/web/20170209010106im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/8/b/u/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu8tv0.png/1486601427610.jpg)
Mr Shorten rejected the criticism on Thursday, suggesting the government should be defending plans to cut family tax payments.
"I'm not going to sell out my beliefs merely because Mr Turnbull is yelling at us," he said.
"The more he yells at me, the more I wonder if he is judging himself.
"I'm relaxed in my own skin, I'm relaxed with my record of representing people."
The insults fly
Malcolm Turnbull on Bill Shorten
- "This sycophant, blowing hard in the House of Representatives, sucking hard in the living rooms of Melbourne, what a hypocrite."
- "They [Shorten's colleagues] know he is a fake. He has no integrity, no consistency. He doesn't have a fair dinkum bone in him."
- "I don't suck up to billionaires, I look them in the eye and when I need to take them on."
- "He is a complete hypocrite. He wants to play the man of envy but he's been a sycophant. Everybody knows."
- "No union leader has tucked his knees under more billionaires' tables than Bill Shorten."
- "Bill Shorten sold his members out again and again and they know that ... he is selling them out now and he will sell them out again because that is his character."
Barnaby Joyce on Bill Shorten
- "He spends his whole life swanning it with Solly Lew and Richard Pratt"
- "You might be leader of the Labor Party, but it looks like you've never done a day's labour in your life."
- "He couldn't run a pie shop and the thought of him running the country fills me with dread."
Bill Shorten on Malcolm Turnbull
- "Mr Harbourside Mansion" (borrowed from Peta Credlin)
- "I feel sorry for him because I think he came in as Prime Minister when people had such high hopes for him."
- "The more he yells at me and calls me names, I think he is looking in the mirror and he is worried about the fact he has sold out on climate change, the fact he has sold out on marriage equality, sold out on Australia becoming a Republic, now he is Prime Minister he can't find the time to do anything about it."
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