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.
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."
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