Labor has berated a push to criminalise falsely representing government entities such as Medicare as "the longest dummy spit in Australian political history".
The Turnbull government is poised to introduce harsh penalties, including jail time, for anyone caught falsely representing a government body - a tactic Labor harnessed in last year's "Mediscare" election campaign.
"Malcolm Turnbull needs to stop fighting the last election. He needs to stop worrying about this sort of campaigning and get on with government the country," Labor frontbencher Mark Dreyfus said on Thursday.
It is understood Attorney-General George Brandis is working on two pieces of legislation - one dealing with ways to authorise non-printed electoral communication such as text messages, and one tackling the false representation of a government body.
Existing laws around impersonating a commonwealth officer carry a penalty of up to five years in jail.
In December, a parliamentary committee found electoral laws should be changed to ensure parties were made responsible for their political statements, the authorisation rules applied to all forms of communication, and those who authorised electoral materials were identifiable and traceable.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described Labor's "Mediscare" as an "extraordinary act of dishonesty" but the federal police declined to take any action after investigating the campaign.
Liberal MP Craig Kelly said the law changes were needed to ensure Labor did not replicate its campaign.
"They got away with Mediscare last time - what is to stop the Labor party at the next election to send letters out on faux letterhead from, say, the department of immigration telling people their visas will be cancelled," Mr Kelly told Sky News.
"Under current laws they could get away with that. That would be disgraceful so I would hope the prime minister goes ahead with this."
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