Govt sees ALP press release avalanche

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words (and press releases) will never hurt me.

Tony Abbott will be hoping that the modern twist to the old adage is true.

If not, the prime minister will be reeling under an avalanche of press releases from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's office.

The flood started on the dot at nine on Wednesday morning with an offering in shadow treasurer Chris Bowen's name that started "Australians simply can't afford a budget next week that is all about saving Tony Abbott's job..."

It ended at 10.57 with release number 41, from immigration spokesman Tony Burke and headlined "Abbott & Hockey's Budget disaster".

That's a press release every three minutes over two hours.

Almost every Labor frontbencher put his or her name to at least one, and in a few cases to several.

Almost every release explicitly targeted Mr Abbott, with the idea that the budget is all about saving his job a particularly popular theme.

Thus agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon at 09.38 started a release with "Next week's budget will be about saving Tony Abbott's job..."

In case that message was missed, regional development spokeswoman Julie Collins provided reinforcement at 10.13 with a release headlined "Tony Abbott fighting for his job not the bush."

But Fitzgibbon was presumably still not satisfied. A mere four minutes later, this time in association with Jim Chalmers, he was back with "Abbott focused on his own job; not new jobs."

The prime minister, meanwhile, was in Perth putting a rather different spin on the budget and showing no signs of damage from being slapped over the wrist with 41 limp press releases.