Former prime minister Paul Keating says Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is the "meanest" public figure in Australian politics in 50 years, urging voters to drive a stake through his "dark political heart".
Asked who should be Home Affairs Minister if Labor is elected, the 1990s Labor leader used the opportunity to attack Mr Dutton.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton with Energy Minister Angus Taylor during the Liberal Party campaign launch. Source: AAP
"In those 50 years I've never seen a public figure as mean or mean-spirited as Peter Dutton," Mr Keating told ABC radio.
"Those electors in Dickson [in Queensland] have a chance to drive the political stake through his dark political heart ... and I hope they do."
The Home Affairs Minister responded by saying Paul Keating's "heartless mismanagement" was the reason he got involved in politics.
"Paul Keating almost destroyed my dad's small business with his heartless mismanagement of the economy and he inspired me to join the Liberal Party," he tweeted.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed the attack saying he wouldn't be distracted by Paul Keating.
Foreign policy dictated by university 'chit chat'
While backtracking from his previous comments referring to Australia's security agencies as "nutters", Mr Keating accused the government of setting its foreign policy according to "chit chat" overheard at universities.
"I was sort of speaking in code to the foreign policy and security establishment," he said of his earlier remarks.
"Important as it is that security agencies and intelligence should not be the currency of Australia's foreign policy settings."
Foreign policy should not be based on "dormitory chit-chat" but rather should be based on the tectonic plates of power in the world.
He also blamed Liberal leadership changes for voter disillusionment.
"This is what happens when governments fail to have a program, fail to have imagination, fail to have vista, a panorama of where the country is going," he said.
Pau Keating said Prime Minister Scott Morrison would jump the fence to go to a barbecue and pull on a cap. Source: AAP
"And particularly when you see these internecine battles like the ones between Turnbull and Abbott and then Morrison replacing Turnbull. People get switched off by the internecine battles, the ideological confusion, the lack of clarity of policy and of course they drift to the minor parties."
Scott Morrison was just "the guy next door" who would jump the fence and do a barbecue and pull on a baseball cap, Mr Keating noted.
"We need more than the guy next door," he said.
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Mr Keating also took a swipe at Senate candidate Clive Palmer, labelling him a politician for the wealthy and criticising his role in blocking legislated superannuation increases which would have added $100,000 to the funds of average workers since 2001.
"They are dogs these people, really. They have Pal for breakfast, they are D.O.G.S.", he said.
The coalition's plan to introduce a five per cent deposit scheme for first-home buyers was a nervous reaction, Mr Keating said.
There was a risk the deposit scheme would see prices rise rather than help those trying to get into the market, he warned.
With AAP
