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.
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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".
