Pauline Hanson's protectionist One Nation party is "more economically responsible" than the Labor opposition, Trade Minister Steve Ciobo has said.
As the Turnbull government was forced to defend a preference deal between the Liberal Party and One Nation in Western Australia, Mr Ciobo said the ALP "shouldn't be surprised" to be compared unfavourably to the firebrand minor party.
"Poor @AustralianLabor don't like being told One Nation is more economically responsible than they are. Shouldn't be a surprise to them," he tweeted on Monday.
It came after Mr Ciobo said One Nation's four senators had frequently voted in favour of the Turnbull government's legislation and espoused "a certain amount of economic rationalism" and fiscal responsibility.
"One Nation has certainly signed up to that much more than Labor," he said.
The unprecedented deal between the parties in Western Australia, which will see the Liberals preference One Nation above the Nationals in the upper house in some regional areas, has sparked fresh debate about the role of Pauline Hanson's party in Australian politics, particularly at the conservative end of the spectrum.
Among One Nation's economic policies are taxing foreign companies to the tune of $100 billion, moving away from free trade agreements such as the doomed Trans-Pacific Partnership and instituting a nationalised people's bank. The tax policy page on One Nation's website cites Banjo Paterson and is highly critical of the Liberal Party.
Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said the former Labor government had produced "the best economic response in the world" to the Global Financial Crisis and saved the country from going into recession.
"For the Trade and Tourism Minister to be spruiking One Nation's economic credentials is beyond belief," he told Fairfax Media. "His best explanation is that someone hacked his Twitter account."
Other Labor MPs such as Tim Watts and Rob Mitchell pointed out on Twitter that One Nation's policy agenda included the introduction of a 2 per cent flat tax and zero net migration – measures antithetical to the Coalition's economic position which embraces lower taxes and migration to drive growth.
Mr Ciobo's tweet followed a speech in Parliament in which he accused Labor leader Bill Shorten of being "more concerned about kale than he is about coal", and ignoring the needs of coal miners in regional Australia.
In the Senate on Monday, Pauline Hanson claimed the Queensland Labor party approached her with a "grubby deal" on preferences. However, the State Secretary of Queensland Labor said this was "absolute crap".
Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie scoffed at the "dirty filthy deals" when she appeared on the ABC's Q&A on Monday night. She said One Nation does not have the resilience to be a "power entity".
"What the Liberal Party up there in Federal Parliament will do to keep One Nation on side, honestly ... it just blows me away," Ms Lambie said.
She said the Nationals in Western Australia were a "puppy dog" that the Liberals had taken back to the pound.
"And they think they're getting something better," she said. "I'll tell you what, when that bites them, come back and see me.
"You've gotta be able to sustain that power and that resilience and that resistance, and quite frankly I don't think One Nation has it."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull maintains the One Nation preference deal is a matter for the West Australian division of the Liberal Party, but reiterated his government works "respectfully and constructively" with the Hanson senators at the federal level.
On Sky News on Monday, Attorney-General George Brandis said the Nationals had given their preferences to One Nation and the Shooters and Fishers ahead of the Liberal Party at previous West Australian elections.
