Bill Shorten has criticised the Greens for linking potential deaths from Cyclone Debbie with coal-fired power.
Greens MP Adam Bandt suggested Prime Malcolm Turnbull will have blood on his hands if the commonwealth helps subsidise loans for new coal-fired electricity generation.
"If Malcolm Turnbull uses scarce public money to build a new coal-fired power station he'll have blood on his hands," Mr Bandt told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
"Because the more coal we burn, the more extreme weather events like Cyclone Debbie or Cyclone Yasi we will see and people will suffer."
He also likened such a situation to knowing that tobacco causes cancer but starting your kids on a pack a day habit, or knowing asbestos kills but cladding your family home in it anyway.
But the Labor leader said the Greens shouldn't be using such language.
"I think that's a disservice to the people of north Queensland," Mr Shorten later told reporters.
Watch: Bill Shorten criticises the Greens for linking coal-fired power plants to Cyclone Debbie
