Abbott attacks Rudd's integrity

Tony Abbott has launched a blistering parliamentary attack against Kevin Rudd's integrity, accusing him of using taxpayer-funded advertising to save his own political skin.

The opposition leader condemned Mr Rudd for using public funds to try to win Australians round to his new mining tax but refusing to alert them to the pitfalls of the botched home insulation program.

"This is a prime minister who won't advertise to alert 240,000 families to the problems in their roofs but he is prepared to advertise to save his own political hide," Mr Abbott told parliament.

The prime minister was "looting treasury", Mr Abbott said, because he couldn't "explain, justify and defend the policies of this government".

The withering assault was part of an unsuccessful attempt to move a vote of no confidence in Mr Rudd over multiple broken promises, including a recent decision to exempt the government from its own advertising rules.

The decision has been seen as particularly galling because in the 2007 election campaign Mr Rudd promised to uphold higher standards for taxpayer-funded political advertising, which he described as a "cancer on democracy".

"He has junked his own rules to fund his own campaign," Mr Abbott said.

"He has junked his own principles to save his political skin, this is not just about the advertising, this is fundamentally about this prime minister's integrity."

Mr Rudd hit back by reminding Mr Abbott of his recent revelation of being a little loose with the truth unless it was "scripted".

The government insists the campaign is necessary to counter the misinformation being plied by the mining sector against the tax.

Mr Rudd continued to accuse the coalition of being a mouthpiece for the resources sector, repeatedly linking the opposition to outspoken mining boss Clive Palmer, a major Liberal National Party donor in Queensland.

And he suggested it was being hypocritical after it spent more than $400 million in taxpayer funds promoting the GST and $120 million on WorkChoices.

Labor denies it has tried to escape parliamentary scrutiny of its decision by leaving its public announcement until Friday, when it could no longer be examined by the relevant Senate estimates committee.

However, justification for the exemption - which was based on "urgency and compelling grounds" according to correspondence released by the government - remains questionable after Mr Rudd admitted the campaign had been under consideration for some time.

"The government over a large number of months considered the desirability of a public advertising campaign to underpin its response to the Henry report," Mr Rudd said.

Government advertising, however, remains a vexed issue for both sides of politics.

Despite repeated questioning, Mr Abbott wouldn't say whether he would ban taxpayer-funded political advertising if he won government.

The coalition is calling for a Senate inquiry into Labor's actions but it could be contingent upon it agreeing to an Australian Greens' proposal for an independent arbiter for government advertising.

Former Howard government minister Andrew Robb, the coalition's finance spokesman, admits the ads aren't particularly effective.

"People see through it, I think it is a waste of money," he told reporters.

The latest survey by Essential Research, released Monday, suggests the public is cynical about both sides of politics. It found both Mr Rudd and Mr Abbott had higher disapproval than approval ratings.

Mr Rudd's disapproval rating was 47 per cent to 41 per cent approval, while 50 per cent were unhappy with the job being done by Mr Abbott, against 35 per cent who approved of his efforts.