Malcolm Turnbull is Tony Abbott in a top hat, Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese has warned.
People expected a change in prime minister would bring something different, he said.
"What they have got is Tony Abbott in a top hat," he said.
He is predicting there will be a long election campaign battle because the federal government needs to buy time.
"Given that they don't have an agenda, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually needed a little bit more time to discover some policies and to discover that they actually are the government and start acting like it," Mr Albanese told ABC TV on Sunday.
Mr Albanese declined to say whether he would be interested in the Labor leadership if the party loses the 2016 poll, saying he intends to be a Labor government minister "which is far better".
