Week two of the federal election campaign has ended with the resignation of a controversial Liberal candidate in Western Australia.
But it was a federal police raid on the office of a Labor senator that caused the fur to fly in heated exchanges between the prime minister and opposition leader.
Federal opposition leader Bill Shorten has labelled Australian Federal Police police raids on Senator Stephen Conroy's office and the home of a staffer in Melbourne "extraordinary and unprecedented".
The opposition leader has also accused the Prime Minister of going to extraordinary lengths to stop Australians finding out the truth about cost blowouts in the National Broadband Network rollout.
He says Australians can't be conned that the NBN Co operates in a "universe independent of the government".
"If the NBN Co. had a story or a fact which the government thought would serve its political interests you'd have a conga line of government ministers queuing up for the selfie. The government cannot pretend that it would not know about significant matters - investigating, calling in the police. What business in Australia, when it calls in the police for what would be perceived as a major matter, wouldn't notify its board?"
Malcolm Turnbull has dismissed Labor allegations that his government had any involvement in the federal police action.
The Prime Minister says Labor should be ashamed for attacking the integrity of the AFP.
He's also dismissed comments by Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus questioning the timing of the raids.
Mr Turnbull says Mr Dreyfus is prone to inflammatory statements.
"They are not normally what you would regard as consistent with somebody who is seeking to be the first law officer of the Crown - you're right - seeking to be the Attorney General. The fact of the matter is AFP acts independently of government. Mr Dreyfus knows that."
Meanwhile, the AFP chief Andrew Colvin has denied any political influence over the raids.
"The government first became aware of this investigation shortly after the commencement of the operational activity yesterday. Shortly after that I also spoke to the Opposition leader as a matter of courtesy to advise him that the AFP was conducting some operational activity. At the commencement of the operational activity we also spoke to Senator Conroy. As you would understand, it related specifically to an office that he uses in Melbourne. So I want to be clear, we have acted independently here from government."
Earlier this week, awkward questions were asked when the Prime Minister toured the West Australian electorate of Fremantle without the Liberal candidate at his side.
Now, in a new development, Sherry Sufi has resigned and will not contest the election.
Mr Sufi has received negative publicity over his comments opposing same sex marriage and Indigenous recognition.
He says he's resigning because of the continued focus on events from his history.
Australian marriage equality activist, Sean Mulcahy has told SBS Radio News he welcomes Mr Sufi's decision.
"His views on same sex marriage are definitely not held by the majority of the Australian population and indeed probably the majority of people in Fremantle. Mr Sufi is very wrong to link same sex marriage with polygamy and polyamory - the two are quite distinct and different things. Of course, same sex marriage is just about ensuring the rights to marry are extended to same sex couples."
But far from the Liberal woes in Fremantle, Malcolm Turnbull has turned his attention to local primary producers in Tasmania.
He's talked up the benefits of trade deals, especially with Japan and China.
In the meantime, opposition leader Bill Shorten took to the streets of Sydney, campaigning in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith before heading to Woy Woy on the New South Wales central coast.
But it was the Greens leader who had to fend off allegations about his financial dealings.
Richard Di Natale has denied claims he failed to declare his family's farm in Victoria for 15 months, in an alleged breach of parliamentary rules.
Senator Di Natale has told the ABC he's met requirements for declaring property in the register of senators' interests.
"No, no, it's absolutely on the register. It's listed as a farm business and it was listed on the register from the moment I took office. It's also listed under Lucy's name, who's my spouse and it's been listed under her name since the moment we took office, so it's just wrong."
The Senator has also denied underpaying au pairs to look after his children.
But it's been a big week for the major parties over immigration, led by this controversial comment about refugees by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton on Sky News.
"They won't be numerate or literate in their own language, let alone English. And these people would be taking Australian jobs, there's no question about that. And for many of them that would be unemployed, they would languish in unemployment queues and on Medicare and the rest of it. So there would be huge cost."
The Prime Minister used debate to reinforce the government's commitment to what it says are border protection measures and defended his Immigration Minister.
"Peter Dutton is an outstanding Immigration Minister. For more than 600 days, there has not been one successful people smuggler operation bringing unauthorised arrivals to Australia. "
The opposition leader says Mr Dutton's remarks hark back to the kind of inflammatory language used by anti-immigration politician Pauline Hanson in the 1990s.
"You see Mr Dutton didn't just insult refugees when he made those comments. He insulted the millions of migrants who've contributed to making this a truly great country."
Also this week, Labor promised to end a controversial freeze on Medicare rebates from January next year, and pledged $59 million to help those left jobless in the troubled car industry.
The government put the brakes on the so-called backpacker tax proposal, while party leaders continued to tussle over workplace relations with Labor rejecting a bid by the Greens to legislate for existing penalty rates.
