A senior cabinet minister has accused Labor leader Bill Shorten of trying to turn Australians against each other for the sake of his own political success.
Mathias Cormann on Wednesday launched a scathing criticism of Mr Shorten and his party's policies, which he labelled outrightly "socialist".
He said Labor was going after success and aspiration by trying to make those doing it tough believe "they will be better off only if other people are worse off".
"Clearly Bill Shorten has made a judgement that enough people across Australia have forgotten about the historical failure of socialism and that is why he believes that his own personal political success will be maximised by essentially turning Australians against other Australians," he told ABC radio.
Exploiting the politics of envy was a proven method for failure, Senator Cormann said, and would lead to mediocrity and fewer opportunities.
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While Malcolm Turnbull remains preferred prime minister, this week's Newspoll showed the coalition's primary support has fallen to 35 per cent.
In two-party terms, Labor leads 54 per cent to 46 per cent.
Mr Shorten has been leading a debate on inequality in recent months, attacking the government for giving millionaires and multinationals tax cuts while allowing penalty rates to be slashed for working Australians.
He announced a number of policies aimed at addressing the issue, including a crackdown on the use of trusts, changes to negative gearing and an effective increase to the top marginal tax rate.
