Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has described the federal government's argument that investing more cash in schools won't boost the economy as "stone age" analysis.
Mr Shorten slammed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's "dark ages view of our economy".
"It makes Tony Abbott look like a man of the future," Mr Shorten said as he rallied Labor supporters in Brisbane on Saturday morning.
related reading
Debate boosts Shorten but he lags in polls
Mr Shorten also took aim at the prime minister's brief consideration of the idea of ending Commonwealth funding for public schools.
"He said that it is really best if the Commonwealth doesn't bother funding those jolly blighters in the state system," Mr Shorten said.
Mr Shorten said Australians know that the only people who can say that money doesn't matter are those for whom money has never been a problem.
He joked that Mr Turnbull went to school with David Gonski, the man who designed the needs-based school funding model, but it was not the same as delivering Gonski to schools.
"Name dropping is not an education policy, is it?" he said.
