Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has hit back at Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's stinging criticism of him, labelling her comments a "bitter, personal and wildly inaccurate" attack.
The war of words erupted after Ms Palaszczuk branded Mr Turnbull an arrogant and disrespectful leader in an interview with The Sunday Mail, before claiming she was at "breaking point" later on Sunday.
But in a statement to his Facebook page, the prime minister said it was hard to know what prompted the angry outburst, which he described as "personal abuse".
In her extraordinary attack, the Queensland premier said Mr Turnbull was a shallow thinker who doesn't understand his job as prime minister.
She also branded Mr Turnbull an arrogant and disrespectful leader, and now believes he's a worse prime minister than Tony Abbott.
"All we've seen lately is a fly-in, fly-out prime minister who is espousing thought bubbles without any deep policy conversation," she told reporters on Sunday.
The premier said it took a lot to get her angry, but she was fed up with Mr Turnbull's approach to national leadership.
"I am at breaking point. I am sticking up for the people of this state," she said.
"At times I think he forgets he is the prime minister of a federation of states that should be working together."
Watch: Butler: Turnbull making it up as he goes along
In an earlier interview with The Sunday Mail, the premier said Mr Turnbull was far more difficult to deal with than Mr Abbott.
"I now believe Malcolm Turnbull is worse than Tony Abbott," she said.
"When Tony Abbott was prime minister, I could get straight answers. I didn't always like what he had to say, but he stuck to it."
The premier's scathing assessment of Mr Turnbull's performance will make for a very frosty meeting in Townsville on Monday, for a Battle of the Coral Sea memorial.
Ms Palaszczuk said Mr Turnbull didn't even bother to contact her when he flew into Brisbane to announce his recent gas plan.
"It's about time that he showed some leadership and was respectful, not just to me but to all the other premiers across the nation."
